Indian fisheries are at a turning point. To date, Indian fisheries policies have emphasised production at the expense of allocation and, indeed, even effort restrictions. On the basis of original ethnographic data and secondary sources, we show how this has led to conflict between sectors and exacerbated pressures on marine living resources in the states of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. We use a social justice approach to analyse this trend and to suggest possible alternative future paths of governance. These turn on the conviction that only with a new emphasis on allocation grounded in social justice can Indian fisheries governance foster fisheries that continue to sustain high levels of employment without further depleting their biological basis.