Estimates of optimum fleet size for the exploited Indian shelf fisheries

A characteristic feature of marine fish production in India is its annual fluctuations, as vividly shown by the statistics of production for the past four decades. Marine fisheries still remain open access and suffer from overcapitalization. About 2,43,000 fishing vessels (1,82,096 artisanal craft, 26,171 motorised craft and 34,571 mechanised craft) exploit this area, where the estimated annual potential is 2.2 million, tonnes. A conservative estimate of investment on fishing implements (craft as well as gear), at current prices is about Rs. 33.4 billion, but the return per unit investment seems hardly viable. Unhealthy competition and unregulatedfishing may decimate the exploited stocks and therefore, the question of decidingthe optimum size of fishing fleets which wouldallow sustainable yields becomes very relevant

Overview of the marine fisheries research in the Lakshadweep

The Union Territory of Lakshadweep consists of 10 inhabited islands and 16 uninhabited islets. The U.T. has an area of 32 sq km and possesses 400,000 sq km of Exclusive Economic Zone. Each island except Androth has a lagoon on the western side, and the lagoon and the reef porvide an ideal coral habitat for a variety of flora and fauna

Status, prospects and management of small pelagic fisheries in India

The annual small pelagic fish production increased from 0.30 million mt during 1950-54 to 1.24 million mt during 1996 along the Indian coast. The 4 fold increase was possible due to several technological advancements. The potenrial yield from the pelagic resources of the EEZ is estimated to be 2.2 million mt. As there is no further scope for increasing the production from the inshore waters, there is need to bring the outer shelf and oceanic waters into increasing levels of exploitation

Demonstration of ornamental fish farming in a coastal village

Ornamental fish farming has great potential for income generation among the rural and urban communities. With a view to make a beginning in this direction, the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute has been demonstrating the methods of homestead production of selected groups of aquarium fishes to the inland fish farmers of Chellanam, a coastal village near Cochin adopted by the Institute for promoting various fisheries activities and the details are reported in this communication

Coastal zone Governance: Kerala in relation to National and International situations

Some of the leading coastal countries like Australia, China, France, Israel, Japan. New Zealand, Oman, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand. Turkey, U.K., U.S.A and others have taken urgent steps for coastal zone management following the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) to meet their commitments to the sustainable development of coastal areas and the marine environment under the national Jurisdiction as per Chapter 17 of Agenda 21 of the above conference. As the coastal zone is generally busy with many economic activities like agriculture, forestry, fisheries, transport and manufacturing industries, it is necessary to accord priority to the conservation of the natural resources and the coastal ecosystem to ensure their sustainable development. Therefore, many coastal countries have evolved Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) plans

Packages of Practices for Sustainable, Ecofriendly Mariculture (Land-based Saline Aquaculture and Seafarming)

The problems of fast growing human population and protein deficit, particularly in the developing countries continue to exert pressure on the fisheries resources available for exploitation in the wild water bodies. The increasingly limited opportunities in the capture fisheries sector have generated considerable interest in aquaculture

IC 5146 dark Streamer: is a first reliable candidate of edge collapse, hub-filament systems, and intertwined sub-filaments?

The paper presents an analysis of multi-wavelength data of a nearby star-forming site IC 5146 dark Streamer (d $\sim$600 pc), which has been treated as a single and long filament, fl. Two hub-filament systems (HFSs) are known toward the eastern and the western ends of fl. Earlier published results favor the simultaneous evidence of HFSs and the end-dominated collapse (EDC) in fl. Herschel column density map (resolution $\sim$13$''$.5) reveals two intertwined sub-filaments (i.e., fl-A and fl-B) toward fl, displaying a nearly double helix-like structure. This picture is also supported by the C$^{18}$O(3-2) emission. The scenario "fray and fragment" may explain the origin of intertwined sub-filaments. In the direction of fl, two cloud components around 2 and 4 km s$^{-1}$ are depicted using the $^{13}$CO(1-0) and C$^{18}$O(1-0) emission, and are connected in velocity space. The HFSs are spatially found at the overlapping areas of these cloud components and can be explained by the cloud-cloud collision scenario. Non-thermal gas motion in fl with larger Mach number is found. The magnetic field position angle measured from the filament's long axis shows a linear trend along the filament. This signature is confirmed in the other nearby EDC filaments, presenting a more quantitative confirmation of the EDC scenario. Based on our observational outcomes, we witness multiple processes operational in IC 5146 Streamer. Overall, the Streamer can be recognized as the first reliable candidate of edge collapse, HFSs, and intertwined sub-filaments together.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Assessment of the exploited seerfish stocks in the Indian waters

The annual average catch of seerfishes from the lndian seas during 1990-1994 was 31,926 t, which constituted 1.7% of the total marine fish catch in India. Though there was an increasing trend in the seerfish production in the decades upto the 1990's the rate of increase through the successive decades decreased, suggesting the attainment of near optimum level of production. State-wise production showed that during the 1990's Gujarat (22.8%) followed by Maharashtra (16.9%), Kerala (16.2%), Andhrapradesh (14.3%) and Tamilnadu (11.5%) were the dominant seerfish producers. Gearwise production indicated that the gillnet landed 65.1%, trawl 11.5% and hooks and lines 6.9%, while the rest was landed by the boatseines, shoreseines and purseseines. Among the four species, Scomberomorus commerson (55.3%) and S. guttatus (43.9%) sustained the fishery, while S. lineolatus and Acanthocybium solandri formed only a negligible portion of the fishery

Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope Observations of the Star-Forming Ring in NGC7252: Evidence of Possible AGN Feedback Suppressing Central Star Formation

Some post-merger galaxies are known to undergo a starburst phase that quickly depletes the gas reservoir and turns it into a red-sequence galaxy, though the details are still unclear. Here we explore the pattern of recent star formation in the central region of the post-merger galaxy NGC7252 using high resolution UV images from the UVIT on ASTROSAT. The UVIT images with 1.2 and 1.4 arcsec resolution in the FUV and NUV are used to construct a FUV-NUV colour map of the central region. The FUV-NUV pixel colour map for this canonical post-merger galaxy reveals a blue circumnuclear ring of diameter $\sim$ 10 " (3.2 kpc) with bluer patches located over the ring. Based on a comparison to single stellar population models, we show that the ring is comprised of stellar populations with ages $\lesssim$ 300 Myr, with embedded star-forming clumps of younger age ($\lesssim$ 150Myr). The suppressed star formation in the central region, along with the recent finding of a large amount of ionised gas, leads us to speculate that this ring may be connected to past feedback from a central super-massive black hole that has ionised the hydrogen gas in the central $\sim$ 4" $\sim$ 1.3 kpc.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letter