Andhra Pradesh has a coastline of 974 km with about 33, 000 sq. km of continental shelf.
There are 498 marine fishing villages. Srikakulam district accounts for the maximum with 107 villages. There are only 8 marine fishing villages in West Godavari district. Other districts with large number of marine fishing villages are Visakapatnam (79), Nellore (79), Prakasam (74) and East Godavari (53).
There are 271 marine fish landing centres of which 63 are located in Nellore followed by Srikakulam (54), Prakasam (43), East Godavari (37), Visakhapatnam (31) and the rest in other districts.
There are 4 fishing harbours at Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Nizampatnam and Machilipatnam.
There are 129, 246 marine fisherfolk families in the state with maximum number of families located in Visakhapatnam (31, 472). The other major districts are East Godavari (20, 846), Srikakulam (18, 791) and Krishna (15, 844).
The total marine fisherfolk population is 509, 991 of which 51 % are males (including children). There are 962 females for 1000 males among the fisherfolk of the state. The average family size is about 4.
Nearly 99 % of the families are Hindus.
About 67.5 % of the fisherfolk have no formal education at all. Among the educated fisherfolk, about 67 % had primary level education and only 5 % of the educated had above secondary level education.
There are 138, 614 active fishermen and they constitute 27 % of the total fisherfolk population.
Nearly 79 % of the active fishermen have full time occupation in fishing.
The number of active fisherfolk is the highest in Visakhapatnam district and the lowest in West Godavari district.
Nearly 30 % (152, 882) of fisherfolk are engaged in fishing associated activities in which 60 % are females.
Among those in fishing associated occupations, 36 % earn living as labourers.
Nearly 79 % of those engaged in marketing are women.
About 87 % of fisherfolk engaged in curing operations are females.
Repair and maintenance work is almost exclusively done by males (forming 96 % of those engaged in this occupation).
Nearly 33 % of the fisherfolk are members of co-operative societies.
There are 41, 039 fishing craft in the fishery, of which 24, 386 are non-motorized, 14, 112 are motorized and the rest 2,541 are mechanized craft of which 1, 802 are trawlers.
There are 29, 604 craft owned by the fisherfolk of which 68 % are traditional non-motorized, 30 % are motorized and the rest mechanized craft.
The fisherfolk own only 526 mechanized boats of which 359 are trawlers and 134 are gillnetters.
There are 8, 989 motorized craft owned by fisherfolk of which majority (2, 557) are in Nellore district followed by Prakasam (1, 776) and Visakhapatnam (1, 518) districts and the rest in other districts.
Catamarans (44 %) and fibre glass boat (42 %) form bulk of the motorized craft.
There are 20, 089 non-motorized traditional craft of which 64 % are Catamarans, 34 % are plank built and the rest are other type of craft.
Maximum number of traditional non-motorized craft is in Srikakulam district. The other leading districts are Visakhapatnam, Krishna and Prakasam.
Fishermen own 712, 362 pieces of gillnets.
Among the 106, 863 units of nets, nearly 52 % are Hook & line, 18 % fixed bagnets and 10 % are seine nets. Others include trawlnets, scoopnets, traps, etc.
Nearly 45 % of the fisherfolk families possess neither craft nor gear.
About 5 % of the families have only women as the sole bread winner, involved in fishing allied occupation.
About 53 % of fisherfolk housed were pucca with the maximum in Prakasam district (91 %) and the minimum in West Godavari district (14.2 %).
There are about 627 educational institutions situated in the marine fishing villages of which 83 % are primary level schools.
Nearly 95 % of the marine fishing villages are electrified and about 87 % are connected by road.
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