Despite being endowed with a vast exclusive economic zone and significant proportion of subsistence fishers at risk, scholarly work on marine fisheries in India has largely overlooked the fisheries dimension of marine oil spills. As a consequence, contingency planning for oil spills at all levels has paid inadequate attention to the entire gamut of fisheries aspects ranging from physical contamination and toxic effects of oil spills on fishing and mariculture resources, socio-economic impact on the fishing community, repercussions of contaminated seafood on public perception, seafood safety and fisheries closures following an oil spill, and compensation for pollution damages to the affected fishers. This review outlines the recent oil spill incidents around the world, and lists out the damage it has caused to the marine fisheries and associated economy. Besides, it also deals with the legal and public health safety aspects of an oil spill and argues for a balanced view to minimize loss to the industry without compromising on the quality of seafood and, discusses imperatives for successful compensation claims for oil pollution damages to the fishermen.

 Oil spills, fisheries, pollution damages