& The farming of the red seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii and related species as raw material for the hydrocolloid carrageenan rapidly spread from the Philippines in the late 1960s to Indonesia, Tanzania, and other tropical countries around the world. Although numerous studies have documented positive socioeconomic impacts for seaweed farming, factors such as diseases and distance to export markets have led to an uneven development of the industry. Using standard budgeting techniques, this study adapted production and market data from a FAO-led global review of seaweed farming to develop comparative enterprise budgets for eight farming systems in six countries (Indonesia, the Philippines, Tanzania, India, Solomon Islands, and Mexico). Although the basic technology package is the same across countries, the study revealed large differences in the economic performance of systems due to wide variations in farm prices and the scale of operations. Although seaweed farming is a suitable activity for small-scale producers, a minimum of 2,000 m of cultures lines are still necessary to ensure adequate economic returns. Greater farming plots may be needed if farm prices are well below the average farm prices paid in Indonesia and the Philippines. Policy recommendations are made to improve the economic potential of underperforming systems.

Coastal communities are some of the most at-risk populations with respect to climate change impacts. It is therefore important to determine the vulnerability of such communities to co-develop viable adaptation options. Global efforts to address this issue include international scientific projects, such as Global Learning for Local Solutions (GULLS), which focuses on five fast warming regions of the southern hemisphere and aims to provide an understanding of the local scale processes influencing community vulnerability that can then be up-scaled to regional, country and global levels. This paper describes the development of a new social and ecological vulnerability framework which integrates exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity with the social livelihoods and food security approaches. It also measures community flexibility to understand better the adaptive capacity of different levels of community organization. The translation of the conceptual framework to an implementable method is described and its application in a number of "hotspot" countries, where ocean waters are warming faster than the rest of the world, is presented. Opportunities for cross-cultural comparisons to uncover similarities and differences in vulnerability and adaptation patterns among the study's coastal communities, which can provide accelerated learning mechanisms to other coastal regions, are highlighted. The social and ecological framework and the associated survey approach allow for future integration of local-level vulnerability data with ecological and oceanographic models.

An attempt has been made to evaluate the economics and marketing of dry fish production in Thoothukudi District of Tamil Nadu, India. The information on various aspects of the dry fish enterprise was collected through random sampling of 29 dry fish producers in a pre-structured interview schedule. The results indicates that 50 % of the total dry fish produced (in terms of quantity) was contributed by sardines and anchovies however, the seer fishes fetched a premium market price of ₹550 kg -1 followed by carangids (₹125 kg-1), and belonids (₹115 kg-1). The dry fish production found to be a profitable business with an Internal Rate of Returns (IRR) value of 75 % and Simple Rate of Returns (SRR) value of 43.48% respectively with a net profit margin of ₹ 2258.83 week-1 was possible. The study also suggests that the dry fishes reached the consumers by way of three marketing channel viz., the channel 1 (producer to consumer) was found the most efficient marketing channel over the channel 2 (producer, middleman and consumer) and channel 3 (producer, wholesaler, middleman and consumer). The cost of raw materials, transportation, packaging, and market margin were the key factors that influences and decides the income of the dry fish producers and all the factors exhibits a statistical significance at 0.05 level.

Seasonal fishing ban (SFB) is followed along the Indian coast for the past 15 to 25 years for sustaining marine fishery resources. However, the effect of the SFB on fishery resources and societies has not yet been established. In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the net social benefit of the SFB which will help to throw light on the impact of SFB and guide to substantiate or recommend alternate/improved management measures to sustain marine fisheries. In the present study, the economic valuation of SFB was carried out in five selected maritime states of the country. It was found that the incremental biomass ranged from 5 to 9%. The net social benefit was also positive in all the states, which ranged from `1,097 lakhs in Andhra Pradesh to `2,796 lakhs in Tamil Nadu. Based on performance of SFB in terms of net societal benefits, the states were ranked in the order, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Gujarat, Karnataka followed by Andhra Pradesh. Results of the study recommends continuation of SFB, however, it should not be considered as a stand-alone practice and should be considered only as part of a bundle of management measures for sustaining marine fisheries in India.

The commercially important red alga Kappaphycus alvarezii is widely cultivated along Tamil Nadu coast. Apart from farming, wild collection of seaweed is also being practiced by fishers for their livelihoods. The present study on economics and constraints of farming and wild collection of seaweeds was undertaken in the Ramanathapuram District of Tamil Nadu, employing an expost-facto research design. The study found that the total cost of production for fabricating one bamboo raft (12 x 12 feet) was `1,050/-. The crop duration was 45 days and four to six crops were harvested in a year. The average yield was 200-260 kg per raft per crop. The price of harvested kappaphycus on wet and dry weight basis were `4 and `37.50 per kg respectively. Majority of seaweed farmers earned around `50,000/-to 1,00,000/-annually and the profit margin was 60%. The average gross revenue per trip per group of five members for wild collection of seaweed worked out to `6,700/-and the capital productivity was 0.30. It is interesting to note that about 20% of the respondents were those who left fishing and switched to farming and wild collection of seaweeds.