Economy - overview:
The Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas. It carries a particularly heavy traffic of petroleum and petroleum products from the oilfields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia. Its fish are of great and growing importance to the bordering countries for domestic consumption and export. Fishing fleets from Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan also exploit the Indian Ocean, mainly for shrimp and tuna. Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped in the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, and western Australia. An estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean. Beach sands rich in heavy minerals and offshore placer deposits are actively exploited by bordering countries, particularly India, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
Marine fisheries:
the Indian Ocean fisheries are the third most important in the world accounting for 14%, or 11,318,783 mt of the global catch in 2016; tuna, small pelagic fish, and shrimp are important species in these regions; the Food and Agriculture Organization delineated two fishing regions in the Indian Ocean:
Eastern Indian Ocean region (Region 57) is the most important region and the fourth largest producing region in the world with 8%, or 6,387,659 mt, of the global catch in 2016; the region encompasses the waters north of 55º South latitude and east of 80º East longitude including the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea with the major producers including Indonesia (1,405,401 mt), India (1,382,504 mt), Burma (1,185,610 mt), Bangladesh (626,528mt), and Sri Lanka (445,842 mt); the principal catches include shad, Skipjack tuna, mackerel, shrimp, and sardinellas Western Indian Ocean region (Region 51) is the world’s sixth largest producing region with 6% or 4,931,124 mt of the global catch; this region encompasses the waters north of 40º South latitude and west of 80º East longitude including the western Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea as well as the waters along the east coast of Africa and Madagascar, the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and the west coast of India with major producers including India (2,217,189 mt), Pakistan (376,266 mt), Oman (279,606 mt), and Mozambique (203,449 mt); the principal catches include Skipjack and Yellowfin tuna, mackerel, sardines, shrimp, and cephalopods
