There were 641 marine fishing villages in Orissa out of which 276 were in Balasore, 116 in Jagatsinghpur, 109 in Kendrapara, 79 in Bhadarak, 35 in Puri and the remaining 26 were in Ganjam district.
The total number of fishermen households was 86352 of which 41%were in Balasore district, 15% in Jagatsinghpur, 135 in Bhadarak, 12% in Puri, 10% in Ganjam, and (% in Kendrapara district.
Marine fisherfolk population in Orissa was 4, 50,391. Adult male constituted32%, adult females 28% and children 40% of the population. Average population per village was 703 and the average family size was 5.22.Fisherfolk concentration was higher in Ganjam district followed by Puri .Female to male ratio was 904 for 1000 males.
In Orissa 32% of the fishermen possessed primary level of education 13%secondary level and 4%possessed above secondary level of education. About 51% of the fishermen population has no formal education. Nearly 60%of the marine fisher folk in Kendrapara district have some level of education followed by Jagatsinghpur (53%), Balasore (49%), Bhadarak (37%), Puri (33%) and Ganjam (15%).
About 98% of the fisherfolk families were Hindus and more than 55% of the fishermen families belonged to either scheduled caste or scheduled tribe.
The number fishermen engaged in actual fishing is about 1.2 lakh forming 27% of the marine fisherfolk population. Out which 62%were full timers, 28%were part time fishers and the remaining 10% were occasional. More than 75% of the fishermen in Ganjam, Kendrapara and Puri, were full timers, while part time fishermen were maximum in Balasore, Jagatsinghpur and Bhadarak districts.
Nearly 34%of the fisherfolk earned their livelihood from allied activities like marketing, repairing/making of nets, curing, peeling, labour, and other fishery related activities. Most of the males were engaged in occupation such as repairing/making of nets (33%), labour (27%), and marketing (21%) while female involvement is higher in curing (33%), marketing (20%), labour (19%) and repairing/making of nets (13%).
8% of fisherfolk families were having membership in co-operative societies out of which 50% have membership in fisheries co-operatives. Co-operative membership is maximum in Jagatsinghpur district.
Trawlers, gillnetters and dolnetters are the main crafts of the mechanized sector and plank built boats and catamarans were more in the artisanal sector. There are 23,740 craft in the fishery employed in marine fishing of which 3,577 are mechanized; 4,719 are motorized and the rest are non-motorized. Gillnetters and trawlers account for 87% of the mechanized craft. There were 1,340 mechanised trawlers of which 589 were in Balasore and 503 in Jagatsinghpur district.
Orissa marine fisherfolk owned 21,110 crafts out of which 125 were mechanized, 20% were motorized and the remaining were non-motorized craft. The number of families having shares in fishing craft was maximum in Balasore followed by Jagatsinghpur and Puri.
Important gears of Orissa were gillnets, fixed bagnets, hooks & lines, seines and trawl nets. Sharing pattern is more visible in fixed bagnets, driftnet and seine nets.
Nearly 30% of the fisherfolk families involved in fishing possess neither craft nor gear.
Only 135 of the fisherfolk families were found to own some electronic gadgets/life saving equipment.
In Orissa, nearly 900 educational institutions in the marine fishing villages of which 71% are primary schools, 26% are secondary.
About 72%of the marine fishing villages were electrified and 71% were connected by road.
There were only 27 ice factories and 12 boat building yards located in the marine fishing villages.
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