Director of ICAR-Centre for Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) A. Gopalakrishnan has hailed the Vizag Regional Centre of CMFRI for its contribution to the documentation of fish resources through the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Manager (EAFM) for Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and Yanam.
The CMFRI Director was in the city on Monday to dedicate the indigenously developed Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS) for nursery rearing of finfishes to the nation.
Addressing a meeting organised on the occasion, Mr. Gopalakrishnan recalled the recent statements of Union Minister of Fisheries, Dairy Development and Animal Husbandry Parshottam Rupala that Indian marine fisheries was more eco-friendly than those of many developed nations. The carbon dioxide generated through processing of the fish was a mere 16.3%, he said.
He said that stock assessment for the northeast coast was being done by the CMFRI Vizag centre on a regular basis. He described the Vizag centre as ‘self-sustaining’ centre as it was getting externally-funded-projects from 2013-14 itself. The centre was also supporting fish farmers through training programmes and also supporting academic research by guiding research scholars of Andhra Univeristy.
The 6 mm dia cage culture took off from Visakhapatnam and now the regional centre has become the first to take cages in 15-mm dia cages. He said that the training programmes being given by the Vizag centre on nursery rearing of Indian pompano in RAS to fish farmers would ensure skilled manpower was available for scaling up production in future.
The Director released publications of Visakhapatnam RC, which included a centre profile, and launched two indigenously developed feed products.
Three MoUs were signed on the occasion with MSR Aqua Pvt. Ltd. for broodstock development and seed production technology for Indian pompano, with Ms. Ravathi Bandaru for providing technical services in sea cage farming and with Laya NGO for providing technical services in seaweed cultivation.
CMFRI Visakhapatnam RC Head J. Charles Jeeva, and the outgoing Head Shubadeep Ghosh also spoke.
