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On March 11, 2020, the WHO announced COVID-19 a pandemic1 .To limit the spread of COVID-19, on 24 March 2020, the Government of India implemented a cross-country lockdown for 21 days of the entire 1.3 billion population2 . The unprecedented pandemic lockdown threw a challenge to all types of industries, transport, fishing boats and trawlers operations as day to day life came to a standstill (Figure 1 ), and has severely interrupted not only the fisheries supply and demand chain but also the tourism sectors in India plays a major role in Blue Economy of India. The Blue Economy (BE) is the maintainable utilization of ocean resources for financial development, improved employments, and occupations while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem3 . The BE represents about 3.5 to 7% of the global GDP4 . The commercial value of activities associated with the world’s oceans are estimated to be between US$ 3 to 6 trillion.This is accrued from services and resources, e.g. marine transport (90% of overall trade), source of food (fisheries and aquaculture), marine tourism (5% of the global GDP) and global employment (6-7%). The General Assembly of UN adopted the 2030 agenda, in September 2015, for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDG-14, about “Life Below water”, commits countries to conserve and sustainably use oceans, seas and marine resources, by implementing international law as reflected in United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which provides the legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources for BE. The Indian government stands focused on advancing the BE through undertakings like the “SagarMala” project which plans to promote port-led improvement and sustainable development of coastal communities through ability improvement and livelihood generation activities, fisheries development, coastal tourism, etc.6 India is a trade-surplus country in the fisheries sector and exports were more than 31.5 times higher than its imports in fiscal year (FY) 2013. India exports US$ 2.4 billion, its imports were US$ 76 million, registering a trade surplus of US$2.32 billion in the corresponding year5. As the 6th largest exporting country of the world, India exported shellfish worth a total of US$3.89 billion and finfish of US$1.16 billion in FY 2015. In the global fisheries production, India was 2nd in freshwater fish, 3rd in finfish, and 6th in shellfish in FY 2013. In fish trade, India was the 8thlargest exporter and 88th largest importer of the world in FY 20135. Prior to the pandemic, export of fisheries products had grown by 11% from $136 billion in 2013 to $152 billion in 2017, but it is expected to drop by 33% this year due to the current COVID-19 situation7 (Figure.2 ). Like the fisheries, travel and tourism are major economic sectors for small island developing states, generating around $30 billion/yr. The situation has resulted in the near total collapse of livelihoods centred around fisheries, tourism and related economic activities.The overall decline in worldwide arrivals estimated to cause a loss of $7.4 billion equivalent to 7.3% fall in GDP8 .Loss of export revenue from tourism is estimated at about US$ 910 billion to US$ 1.2 trillion in 20209 . The tourism industry in India contributed US$ 2.65 billion to India’s GDP in 2019, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak, about US$ 17 billion in revenue loss is expected in the next one year10 . BE comprises 4.1% of India’s economy11 and India GDP collapsed 23.9 % i.e, (~ 0.05 % BE) of first quarter of 2020-2112 during pandemic. Hence, the closure of trade routes, fishers and tourist is impacting the BE of India. There is a clear unprecedented need for recovery, resilience and management measures for the BE, which include tourism and maritime transport, is essential to accomplishing the objectives of the SDG-14 goal. Improve detectability and compliance with sanitary measures, enhance safety and social assurance of crew and support sustainable and alternative livelihood through economic activities of small-scale fishers and coastal population. In BE industries to trim down transmission of COVID-19, has recommended some precautionary measures such as avoiding close contact with people suffering from acute respiratory illness, regular hand washing with soap & water or hand sanitizer particularly after direct contact with sick people or their environment, using proper face mask over a time during fishing, processing, cold storage and transporation to ports, vessels and to destination of countries. The people, community who directly contact at various work place of BE industries should be supported by government over period of regular health checking, monitoring followed by treatment for further preparatory of the work in fishing, aquaculture, tourism and other marine industries for supplementary recovery of BE contributed GDP.
A comprehensive plan by the Indian government setting up regulatory reform to provide an empowering climate for a sustainable ocean economy (e.g., comprehensive integrated ocean management and marine spatial planning (MSP) processes and shift harmful subsidies to more sustainable and equitable uses. In this context, MSP is considered as significant instrument for the sustainable development of the blue economy of marine areas and coastal regions of India, which can provide long-term resilience and sustainable progress to make a sustainable blue recovery.