Tamil Nadu is endowed with 3.85 lakh hectare of inland water resources which includes reservoirs, long seasonal and short seasonal irrigation tanks and ponds which are suitable for both capture and culture fisheries. An area of 56,000 ha Brackishwater area in form of estuaries, backwater and creeks are available.

Apart from this 7,400 km length of rivers and canals offer good scope for fisheries development and the State is also having cold water fishery resources. The total inland water spread has a potential to yield about 4.5 lakh metric tones.

The Inland Fisheries policy of the state focuses in maximizing the fish production by utilizing available inland water resources through expansion, intensification and diversification of fish culture. To increase the inland fish production of the State, Government is strengthening the infrastructure facilities for seed production and fish seed rearing in both Government and Private sector.

Government is also promoting farming of fast-growing fish varieties through intensive fish culture techniques like Cage culture, Bio-floc system and Re-circulatory Aquaculture System. The inland fish production of the State is estimated as 1.75 lakh MT for the year 2020-21. About 2.37 lakh inland fishermen are engaged in this sector.

The following are the main Inland Fisheries activities implemented by the department.