Omega Fishmeal and Oil is a locally owned company in Maharashtra, India, producing fishmeal and fish oil from bycatch and trimmings sourced primarily from Maharashtra and Goa.1 The plant collaborates with TJ Marine Products in Ratnagiri but does not mention working with specific freezing or processing facilities. The company is involved in a Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) aimed at sustainable management of Indian oil sardines and mackerel.2 The company website states it is certified by ISO 22000 and The Ministry of Agriculture license for Fish Meal by The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China.3
Among the fish species processed by the plant are Indian oil sardine and mackerel from the state managed water of Goa and Maharashtra, according to MarinTrust certification documents from 2025.4 Indian oil sardine and mackerel were classified as “overexploited” in Indian waters, according to Sathianandan and co-authors in ICES Journal of Marine Science, 2021.5 This means that fish are caught faster than they are able to reproduce, shrinking the population and reducing their capacity to recover to healthy levels. Subsequent recent stock assessments, including ones by India’s Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute in 2022, 2023, and 2024, indicate a significant increase in the biomass of Indian oil sardine and fluctuating increases for mackerel, though scientists caution that the boom-bust nature of these fisheries makes it difficult to estimate the longer-term health of these waters.6
In 2017, Omega Fishmeal and Oil started the Indian Oil Sardine MarinTrust Improver Programme for Goa and Maharashtra, which is a program that claims to help make participating fisheries more sustainable.7 Plants and their parent companies routinely use involvement in FIPs and other such programs as evidence of their environmental stewardship, even when participation in them does not result in actual improvement in the health of the relevant fishery. The stated goal of the MarinTrust Improver Programme is to help fish processing plants implement improvements that can ultimately qualify them for full MarinTrust certification.8 However, the continued worsening state of key species that are being targeted by this plant has led some critics to question whether the MarinTrust Improver Programme is more a form of greenwashing than an actual bridge toward improved fishery management.
In correspondence with The Outlaw Ocean Project, Manoj Kushe, director of Omega Fishmeal and Oil Private Limited, said the company “operates under strict regulatory oversight and adheres to certification protocols such as MarinTrust, which require traceability, responsible sourcing, and compliance with environmental standards.”9
“India is progressing in responsible marine protein sourcing and includes references to CMFRI’s biomass studies. These findings support the view that Indian fisheries are undergoing structured recovery and are being managed with increasing scientific rigor,” Kushe wrote in emailed correspondence. “We are concerned that selective use of outdated data may inadvertently misrepresent the current status of Indian fisheries and undermine the credibility of ongoing sustainability efforts. We respectfully urge that you should contact the Government of fisheries or MPEDA for detailed reports.”10