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Winter School on Mariculture Technologies: Principles and Practices to augment the seafood production in India

Mandapam Regional Centre of CMFRI

06 - 26 November 2019

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Marine fish production of India down by 9%, sharp drop in oil sardine catch

The catch of oil sardine from the Indian coasts suffered a sharp decline of 54% as the fish fell down to 9th  position from the first spot, according to India’s marine fish landing estimates for the year 2018. The total marine fish production in 2018 recorded 3.49 million tonnes with a drop of 3.47 lakh tonnes (9%) compared to the previous year mainly due to reduced catch in West Bengal, Karnataka and Maharashtra with a drop of 2.01 lakh tonnes, 0.95 lakh tonnes and 0.86 lakh tonnes respectively. The data, which was released by the Kochi headquartered Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) on Friday, also showed Indian mackerel (2.84 lakh tonnes) is the most landed marine fish in the country during the year followed by cephalopods (2.21 lakh tonnes), non-penaeid prawns (1.94 lakh tonnes), ribbon fish (1.94 lakh tonnes) and penaeid prawns (1.84 lakh tonnes). The catch of sardine dropped to 1.55 lakh tonnes all over India from 3.37 lakh tonnes in 2017.While a steep fall  was recorded in West Bengal, Karnataka and Maharashtra Among the nine maritime states, Gujarat remained in the first position in the landings with 7.80 lakh tonnes followed by Tamil Nadu (7.02 lakh tonnes) and Kerala (6.43 lakh tonnes). Unusually huge catch of red toothed trigger fish about 72,000 t was another highlight of the estimates, with Karnataka recording high landings of this species.

Oil sardine catch drops 39% in Kerala

In Kerala, the oil sardine catch fell to 77,093 tonnes from 1.27 lakh tonnes in 2017 with a decline of 39%. However, the state registered a 10% increase with 6. 42 lakh tonnes in total landings compared to the previous year with all other major resources except oil sardine recording increased catch. As in the overall landings in India, the Indian mackerel (80,568 t) turned out to be the most abundant resource in Kerala too with a significant increase of 142% from the previous year. The other major resources topped in the state were anchovies (58,766 t), threadfin breams (53,549 t), penaeid prawns (50,472 t) and cephalopods (50,180 t). Ernakulam district contributed maximum (25%) to the state landings where Munambam remained as the most contributing fishing harbour in the state.

Slight increase in value of fish

The estimate of the value of marine fish landings based on price at landing centres across the country during 2018 was  Rs. 52,632 crores. with 0.4% increase over 2017. The average price per kg of  fish at landing centre rate was Rs.152 (11.1% increase). At the retail level, the estimated value of marine fish was Rs. 80,320 crores (2.4% increase). The unit price at the retail market level was Rs.232 (13.4% increase). The Fishery Resources Assessment Division of the ICAR- CMFRI estimated the annual marine fish landings of the country through its online data collection system. Dr A Gopalakrishnan, Director of CMFRI, Dr P Pravin, Assistant Director General of ICAR, Dr T V Sathianandan, Dr K Sunil Mohamed, Dr G Maheshwarudu, Dr P U Zacharia, Dr Prathibha Rohit and Dr C Ramachandran were present on the news conference.

ICAR - Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute bags Rajarshi Tandon Rajbhasha Puraskar

ICAR- Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi bagged Rajarshi Tandon Award (Ist Position) instituted by the ICAR, New Delhi for the excellent implementation of Official Language Policy among the Institutes situated in ‘C’ Region for the year 2017-2018. Institute is getting the Award for the 10th time. Dr.A.Gopalakrishnan, Director, CMFRI and Smt. E.K.Uma, Chief Technical Officer (Hindi) jointly received this prestigious Award from Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Director General of ICAR on the occasion of ICAR Foundation Day Celebration held on 16th July, 2019 at NASC Complex, New Delhi. 

International whale shark day: CMFRI holds awareness programme on conservation of protected elasmobranchs

Marking the ‘International Whale Shark Day’, the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) conducted an awareness programme on ‘conservation of protected elasmobranchs’ at Ponnani Fishing Harbour, Malappuram district, Kerala on 30th August 2019. Stakeholders including officers from the Fisheries Department, Forest Department, coastal police, representatives of Ponnani Municipal Corporation, fishermen, teachers and students of MES college Ponnani attended the programme.  Shri C. P. Muhammed Kunhi, Chairman, Ponnani Municipality formally inaugurated the Workshop.  He welcomed the initiatives taken by the ICAR-CMFRI in organising the Workshop at Ponnani where fishermen unknowingly killed and sold one whale shark recently. In his presidential address, Dr. P.U. Zacharia, Head, Demersal Fisheries Division, ICAR-CMFRI emphasised the need for protecting elasmobranchs, especially the whale sharks and described the processes behind whale shark protection movement in Gujarat.

Pamphlets in Malayalam and English entitled “Save the Whale Shark”, prepared by ICAR-CMFRI were released during the programme. This was followed by a brief presentation on ‘Marine Protected Animals’ by Dr. K. Vinod, Principal Scientist, Calicut Research Centre of ICAR-CMFRI.  Shri M. Anil Kumar, Range Forest Officer, Department of Forests gave a brief account of the role of Forest Department in checking the poaching incidences. He also explained the different schedules of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and the penalties imposed for violations. After the presentations, a 7-minute condensed video of the film “Shores of Silence” was shown to the participants.

Shri P. Abdul Majeed, Deputy Director, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Kerala, Shri M.K. Shaji, Circle Inspector, Coastal Police, Ponnani, Capt. M.N. Mohammed Koya, Principal, M.E.S. College, Ponnani, Shri O.K. Salam, Secretary, Boat Owners’ Association, Dr. P.K. Asokan, Scientist-in-charge, Calicut Research Centre of ICAR-CMFRI Dr. V. Mahesh, Scientist, Calicut Research Centre of ICAR-CMFRI and Dr K Vinod spoke on the occasion.

Hands on training on Fish Ageing Using Hard Parts at CMFRI, Kochi

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Tuticorin Research Centre hands over cages to fish farmers to launch sea cage farming

The Tuticorin Research Centre of the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) handed over cages to the fish farmers to launch the sea cage farming in line with Integrated Multi-tropic Aquaculture (IMTA), a climate resilient farming practice, ” under the project National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) – Marine Fisheries at a function held at Mullakadu coast of Thoothukudi district on 24th September 2019.

The TRC of CMFRI regularly extends technical support and scientific advice in site selection of sea cage farming practices, fabrication and deployment of sea cages, scientific advice on sea cage farming of cobia, pompano, sea bass, lobsters etc., under NADP and FIMSUL projects of Tamil Nadu State Fisheries Department and also through NFDB in the coastal villages of Sippikulam and Keelavipar, Thoothukudi District. The Centre is also providing technical guidance for seaweed farming practices and distribution of improvised monolines to the fishermen of Tsunami Nagar, Thoothukudi. In addition, the Centre is engaged with the promotion of the IMTA, including the integrated culture of of organic extractive species like shellfishes (shrimps/bivalves etc) or fin fishes (pompano/sea bass/grouper etc) and inorganic extractive species like seaweeds to create balanced systems for biomitigation, and social acceptability stressing the role of IMTA in climate change mitigation and adaptation.

On the occasion, the seaweed harvest was flagged off.  Material for conducting IMTA was also distributed to the fishermen during the function. Smt. N. Chandra, Joint Director of Fisheries (Regional) was the chief guest at the programme. Smt. Bala Saraswathi, Assistant Director of Fisheries, Tamil Nadu State Fisheries Department, Thoothukudi district, Dr. P. P. Manojkumar, Principal Scientist & Scientist-in-charge of the Centre and Dr L Ranjith, Scientist spoke on the occasion. 

150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi:

ICAR-CMFRI creates awareness on Swachhata Hi Seva

In connection with the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) created awareness on Swachhata Hi Seva among school students. The Institute organised an awareness programme along with competitions namely, skit, fancy dress and quiz, for the students at the Guardian Public School, Puthencruz, Ernakulam. Lectures on Gandhian principles and Swachhata Hi Seva were given to the students, specially focusing on the need of a plastic free environment. Dr V Kripa, Head of the Fishery Environment and Management Division of ICAR-CMFRI and Shri Shoji Joy Edison, Subject Matter Specialist of the KVK of ICAR-CMFRI delivered lectures. Prize money was given away to the winners in the competitions. The Recreation of club of ICAR-CMFRI coordinated the programme.

ICAR-CMFRI teams up with ISRO-SAC to make digital database of wetlands using mobile app

In a major attempt to protect coastal wetlands in the wake of climate crisis, a mobile app has been developed to collect the complete datasets on smaller wetlands across the coastal region of the country. The app was developed by the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of the ISRO upon the request of the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) in line with a memorandum of understanding between them. 

The mobile app is aimed to generate a centralised digital database of the smaller wetlands (2.2 ha) across the country. Such smaller wetlands cover an area of more than five lakh hectares across the country, while Kerala having as many as 2592 smaller wetlands. The app will be used to collect field level data of the wetlands that include geospatial profile, size, water and soil quality, farmed species, pollution status, illegal construction and other biodiversity specialities.

The concept is to integrate field-level regional wetland data to geospatial datasets so as to enable comprehensive monitoring system in the wake of climate change and wetland vulnerabilities. During the launch of the mobile app on 30th September 2019, Dr A Gopalakrishnan, Director of ICAR-CMFRI said the app could become a game changer towards national wetland resilience through by bridging the gap between satellite and ground data. Continuous monitoring will help provide village-level real time advisories for aqua-farmers and alerts on climatic phenomenon in the future.  

The initiative of monitoring the wetlands is carried out by the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project wing of the ICAR-CMFRI. The data collection using the mobile app will be done by registered researchers, farmers and stakeholders while the experts associated with the task will validate the data and will be stored in the central database.

Integration of aquaculture in regional wetlands can be made possible with a complete digital data set of the resources in the country. The field level data collection using the mobile app was also launched

Meeting of NITI Aayog committee for promotion of seaweed cultivation in India

A committee constituted by NITI Aayog to prepare a comprehensive roadmap for promotion of seaweed cultivation visited Tamil Nadu during 12-14 October 2019. A preliminary meeting was held under the chairmanship of Dr. K. Gopal, Principal Secretary, Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Department, Govt. of Tamil Nadu on 12th October 2019 (FN) at Integrated Building for Animal Husbandry & Fisheries Dept., Nandanam, Chennai.

Shri. Jitendra Kumar, IFS, Adviser (NRE), NITI Aayog & Member-Secretary, Dr. A. Gopalakrishnan, Director, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CMFRI), Dr. Amitava Das, Director, CSIR-CSMCRI, Dr. G. S. Sameeran, IAS, Director of Fisheries, Govt. of Tamil Nadu, Shri. Abhiram Seth, Managing Director, Aquagri Pvt. Ltd., officials representing Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Tamil Nadu Fisheries, Environment & Forest department and scientists from ICAR-CMFRI & CSIR-CSMCRI participated in the meeting.

Dr. A. Gopalakrishnan, Director, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CMFRI) & Member of the committee narrated the role of ICAR-CMFRI in seaweed mariculture in India. Dr. G. S. Sameeran, IAS, Director of Fisheries, Govt. of Tamil Nadu, Dr. Srinivasan Kannan, Chief Principal Scientist of CSIR-CSMCRI and Shri. Udayan, IFS, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Tamil Nadu Forest Department also made presentations. The committee members along with Shri. K. Veera Raghava Rao, IAS, district collector, Ramanathapuram visited the seaweed farms at Olaikuda and Munaikadu on 13th October 2019. They interacted with seaweed farmers and obtained the information on economics, constraints and invasion potential of Kappaphycus farming. They also visited the seaweed seedling production and sap extraction facilities at CSIR-CSMCRI, Mandapam Camp.