The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) on Wednesday launched a 21-day summer school to train young researchers on advanced methods of fish stock assessment.
S. Karthikeyan, Fisheries Director, inaugurated the school, which is being organised by the Fishery Resource Assessment Division of the CMFRI, said an official release, which quoted him as stating that policies in fisheries sector were greatly influenced by the fish stock assessment studies. “The Fisheries Department will collaborate with the CMFRI to promote cage fish farming in the State and to explore prospects of deep sea fishing and identifying potential fishing zones”, he said.
In his presidential address, CMFRI Director A. Goplakrishnan said the institute would convene a joint meeting of all the coastal States to implement the Minimum Legal Size restrictions uniformly for preventing juvenile fishing. Overcapacity was a major issue in the fishing sector. “Overcapacity of fishing boats, exploitation of juvenile fishes, climate change and poor condition of the fish stock are some of the major reasons for decline in the availability of marine fishery resources”, he said.
“The living natural resource such as marine fish has capacity to rebuild. If not monitored and properly managed, overexploitation will lead to stock depletion and some may become extinct. Harvest of this resource needs to be maintained at sustainable levels through monitoring and control”, Dr. Gopalakrishnan said.
T.V. Sathianandan, head, Fishery Resources Assessment Division, and Somy Kuriakose, principal scientist, spoke on the occasion.
