India is blessed with vast floodplain wetland resources of 0.5 million ha that are distributed in the Eastern and North Eastern States. They possess varying morphometry, ecological profile, trophic status and biota, and harbor around 96 fish species, however the fish diversity is declining in recent years due to anthropogenic and other stressors including climate change. The wetlands are serving the need for fish from sustenance level to high intensity with varying management regimes. The average fish yield realized from these wetlands was very low as 50 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ against the annual potential of 2000 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. The fish yield from these resources has enhanced through adoption of culture based fisheries and the average yield has increased to 400 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. The increase in fish yield is about 20% of the production potential and there exists wide scope for developing integrated management strategies for optimizing the fish yield. Insufficient access to scientific knowledge and technologies, loss of biodiversity, habitat degradation, poor fisheries infrastructure, weak financial capacity, lack of co-operative approach, poor linkages and unorganized institutional arrangements pose challenges in achieving the potential. The present review synthesizes the updated information available on floodplain wetlands and the changes and developments during the last few decades with reference to ecology, fisheries, biodiversity, production potential, threats, institutional arrangements, governance and recommends strategies for conservation and sustainable fisheries development.

Sundarbans, the largest delta on the planet earth is famous for its marine and estuarine fish resources. A large population is dependent on fishery activity and capture fisheries is treated as the backbone of Sundarban economy. Sundarban boast around 172 species of fishes, 20 species of prawn and 44 species of crabs including two edible crabs. But fisheries in Sundarbans faces some difficult problems which have an impact on the biodiversity, sustainability and livelihood of fish resources and fisher folk viz. shrinking tiger prawn population, indiscriminate fish seed collection, lack of post harvest and other infrastructures, natural calamities such as cyclonic storms and low pressure in Bay of Bengal and seizure of fish trawlers by Bangladesh navy. Despite these problems, Sundarbans’ fisheries have good prospects of developing as both marine and inland fisheries resources are available in abundance. Setting up of new integrated fish harbours complete with cold storage facilities, packaging centers and modern fish markets at six places in the area and creation of International fish processing zone at Kolkata will give a good boost to the fisheries of Sundarbans.

It is envisaged that the influence of river hydrology on the commercial catch of anadromous species in river–estuary systems is very pronounced. We delineate a general framework to quantify the effect of changing river hydrology on the catch of a very unique anadromous species, the Hilsa Tenualosa ilisha, a shad species that is distributed across the Indo‐Pacific region. The Narmada River–estuary system was studied as a representative for the region. Two synthesized factors—migratory habitat availability (factor 1) and migratory habitat quality potential (factor 2)—were derived from five hydrological variables to explain 96% of the variability in the hydrological regime of the Narmada River–estuary system. Based on the proposed autoregressive integrated moving average with explanatory variables (ARIMAX) modeling framework, we found that both factors had significant positive effects. Model‐based forecasts of Hilsa catch revealed a decreasing trend in the future if a similar hydrological regime prevails. In a simulated future scenario, a 15% increase in Hilsa catch was predicted to occur in response to a 2% increase in factor 1, considering the last 5 years’ average catch as a benchmark. Some management strategies focused on controlling the hydrological regime are suggested to enhance Hilsa fisheries. Received February 15, 2017; accepted July 1, 2017 Published online October 11, 2017