The knowledge, awareness, and practices (KAP) about COVID-19 among the marine fishers who are engaged in the high-risk occupations and depend on the vulnerable sources of income in the Maharashtra state of India, were investigated to understand the behavioral changes and vulnerability among the respondents because of COVID-19. Data were collected through an online survey from 1st July to 30th July 2020 during the first peak of COVID-19 in the study area by using the questionnaire. Authors based on the latest recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO) developed the questionnaire and covered the KAP aspects under study. The questionnaire was administered through Google form link and the link was disseminated through social media such as Facebook and What’s App. The completed responses (n = 533) received from the eligible sample, excluding those outsides of the fisher community and duplicate entries were considered for analysis. Appropriate statistical tools were used to analyze the data. Among the respondents, 447 men (83.86%) and 86 women (16.14%), with a mean age of 45.4 years (M = 45.4, SD = 1.18). The results revealed that 70.92% of respondents perceived a low risk of infection because of COVID-19 with M = 1.77 and SD = 0.583, but authors found the perceived severity score high (M = 3.95, SD = 1.21) among the 60.97% of respondents. Around 95% of respondents were aware of the COVID-19, while almost all respondents knew the medium of infection and symptoms of COVID-19. The behavior of respondents towards COVID-19 infection was positive and was following sufficient precautionary measures suggested by WHO to protect themselves from COVID-19 infection. The results of multiple regression analysis revealed that the demographic features of respondents like age, education were significantly contributing to the KAP of the fisher community. The results confirmed the importance of KAP which is reflected in the behavioral responses of the fishers while tackling the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The results regarding the risk perception, severity, KAP about COVID-19 provide a collective understanding of the emerging infectious disease among the marine fishers of Maharashtra state of India.

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Fisheries are entirely a people driven industry and have been growing at an impressive rate. Innovations in fisheries sector are happening continuously that lead to the creation of novel solutions to both common and uncommon problems faced by fishers.Different kinds of fishing boats and rafts are used in fishing which is expensive for poor fishers hence; innovations are a phenomenon in the development of fishing rafts. These innovations are made from locally available materials. Keeping this assertion in mind, a study was conducted with an objective to record the innovations on the development of fishing rafts and to check the appropriateness of these innovations on select parameters.The case of five innovations has been examined and discussed in this paper and confirmed by means of a personal visit. Appropriateness of these innovations was tested on a fivepoint Likert scale. Point 5 being highly appropriate and 1 being least appropriate with innovation considered as appropriate if its score was above 3. Innovations were ranked by respondents (N= 140) who had graduation in Fisheries Sciences and all innovations were found to be appropriate with a score of above 3/5. It was observed that these innovations are contributing to the economic saving of the fishers and they are very effective in daily use and found efficiently contributing to routine work. The government must encourage farmers who are practising innovative methods which are easy to use, sustainable and offer economic incentives for good practices.

Aims: The present study was carried out to investigate the impact of vulnerability on livelihood of fishers of Ratnagiri, Maharashtra state of India. Study Design: For this study interview schedule was used to collect the fisher information. Place and Duration of Study: In present study, the data were collected from the fishers of the three fishing villages of Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra during the year 2019-2020. Methodology: The data were randomly collected from 64 fisher by using questionnaire in the Google form and interview schedule. The vulnerability variables considered in this study are categorised as natural shocks like cyclones, heavy rain, environmental changes; personal factors like illness, sea accidents, sudden death, social conflicts and seasonality includes decline in fish catches, unpredictable price fall and non-availability of markets. The opinions of respondents with respect to vulnerability factors were recorded on the basis of three categories i.e. high impact, medium impact and low impact. The descriptive statistics i.e. percentage and frequency analysis was used to represent the results. Results: The overall results of vulnerability indicated that the natural shocks factors like cyclones, heavy rain, environmental changes and personal factors like illness, sea accidents, sudden death, social conflicts have high impact on more than 90% respondents; while seasonality factors like decline in fish catches, unpredictable price fall and non-availability of markets have high impact on livelihood of about 70% fishers respondents. Conclusion: The respondents reported that the various factors of vulnerability have direct impact on livelihood of fishers and ultimately socioeconomic conditions of the fishers.