Coasts and shelves
Shallow seas over the continental shelf. 281 fish on EveryFish so far.
The continental shelf is the shallow sea bed that fringes the continents, usually less than about 200 metres deep. It covers under a tenth of the ocean, but sunlight and nutrients from rivers and upwelling make it very productive, and most of the world's sea catch comes from it. Coastal seas hold schools of sardines and mackerel near the surface and cod, croakers and flatfish near the bottom.
India's coastal fisheries
India has a long coastline, remeasured in 2024 at more than 11,000 km, and most of its sea catch comes from the shelf. Oil sardine and mackerel dominate on the south-west coast, Bombay duck, pomfret and ribbonfish in the north-west, and hilsa, croakers and prawns in the Bay of Bengal. Small-scale fishers work close to shore, while trawlers and purse seiners fish further out. Mechanised fishing stops for 61 days each year during the monsoon breeding season.
Pressure on the shelf
Because shelf seas are close to land and easy to reach, they are heavily fished. Bottom trawling catches many young fish and disturbs the sea bed. Pollution from rivers, coastal building and the loss of mangroves and sea grass affect nurseries. In many seas, catches have shifted from large, valuable fish to smaller ones as the larger fish have been fished out. Marine protected areas and closed seasons are the main tools used to rebuild stocks.
Still to be written: Indian mackerel, Indian oil sardine, Bombay duck, Pampus argenteus, Largehead hairtail, Atlantic cod, European plaice, Atlantic herring.
Further reading
WorldBullet tuna
Small, slender tuna found in tropical oceans worldwide.Tuna · Open ocean
WorldBlue mackerel
A small, fast pelagic fish found in tropical Indo-Pacific waters.Tuna · Coasts and shelves
WorldBonito
Medium-sized predatory fish in the mackerel and tuna familyTuna · Coasts and shelves
WorldLongtail tuna
A slender tropical tuna of the Indo-West Pacific.Tuna · Coasts and shelves
WorldLittle tunny
A fast, coastal tuna of the Atlantic and Mediterranean.Tuna · Coasts and shelves · 1810
WorldAtlantic bonito
A mackerel-like game fish of the Atlantic and Mediterranean.Tuna · Coasts and shelves
🇺🇸 United States and 3 morePacific bonito
Striped marine fish of the Pacific coastTuna · Coasts and shelves
Latin America and the CaribbeanSerra Spanish mackerel
A western Atlantic mackerel species often confused with its northern cousin.Tuna · Coasts and shelves · 1978
WorldCero
A spotted and striped Spanish mackerel of the western Atlantic.Tuna · Coasts and shelves
🇦🇺 Australia and 1 moreAustralian spotted mackerel
A large coastal mackerel from northern Australia and Papua New Guinea.Tuna · Coasts and shelves · 1980
WorldAtlantic chub mackerel
A small, silvery mackerel found in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.Tuna · Coasts and shelves
🇿🇦 South Africa and 4 moreSnoek
A long, thin snake mackerel found in the Southern Hemisphere seas.Tuna · Coasts and shelves · 1791
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Bullet tuna: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Blue mackerel: Izuzuki, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Longtail tuna: Muhammad Moazzam Khan, CC BY 3.0, source
- Little tunny: Xavier Romero-Frias, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Atlantic bonito: Etrusko25, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Pacific bonito: nmoorhatch, CC BY 4.0, source
- Serra Spanish mackerel: Russ Pangratz - Tallahassee, FL., Public domain, source
- Cero: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Atlantic chub mackerel: Etrusko25, Public domain, source
- Snoek: Brian Gratwicke, CC BY 2.0, source