The Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, 2005

In one line

Parliament answered the shrimp farm judgment with an Authority chaired by a present or former High Court judge, and rebuilt it substantially in 2023.

In the wording a student can write in an examination: the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act 2005, as amended by the Coastal Aquaculture Authority (Amendment) Act 2023 which received assent on 12 August 2023 and came into force on 7 September 2023, establishes the Coastal Aquaculture Authority, consisting of a Chairperson who is or has been a Judge of a High Court, experts in coastal aquaculture, coastal ecology and environment protection, members representing the Ministries of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Commerce and Industry, and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, and one member for each coastal State and Union territory, appointed by the Central Government for three years, with a Secretary as its chief executive; it requires the Central Government under section 3 to take all such measures as it deems necessary or expedient for the regulation of coastal aquaculture by prescribing guidelines, so that coastal aquaculture does not cause any detriment to the coastal environment and the livelihood of people in coastal areas is protected; and by section 11 it empowers the Authority to make regulations for the construction and operation of coastal aquaculture units, to inspect and register them, to order the removal or demolition of a polluting unit after hearing the occupier, to regulate or prohibit the number, species and method of coastal aquaculture through aqua zonation and aqua mapping, and to fix standards for inputs, biosecurity and effluent.

The definitions that matter

Coastal aquaculture, in section 2(1)(c) as substituted in 2023, means the rearing and cultivation of any life stage of fish, including crustacean, mollusc, finfish, seaweed or any other aquatic life, under controlled conditions, indoor or outdoor, in cement cisterns, ponds, pens, cages, rafts, enclosures or otherwise, in saline or brackish water in coastal areas, including brood stock and seed production and grow out, but not fresh water aquaculture.

Three things follow. It is confined to saline or brackish water. It covers any aquatic life and every stage of its rearing, not only shrimp in ponds. And fresh water aquaculture is outside the Act entirely.

Coastal aquaculture unit, in the new clause (ca), is any facility engaged in coastal aquaculture or an allied activity, and includes a Nucleus Breeding Centre, a Brood Stock Multiplication Centre, a hatchery and a farm, each of which the amendment also defines. The Act now registers and regulates units, not only farms.

Coastal area, in section 2(1)(d) as substituted, means the area declared as the Coastal Regulation Zone in the Coastal Regulation Zone notification issued by the Central Government under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, and includes such other area as the Central Government may notify. Until 2023 the definition named the notification of 19 February 1991; it now follows whichever notification is in force.