Maximum sustainable yield of trawl fishery along the south-west coast of India: Bayesian estimation approach

The south-west region of the Indian coast is shared by three maritime states and it contributes nearly 32% to the total marine fish production of the country. Mechanised trawl fishery accounts for 44% of the marine fish harvest in the south-west coast and a number of resources are harvested by trawl nets from this region. An assessment of the trawl fishery to determine sustainable harvest levels for mechanised trawlers in the region was carried out using time series data on annual landings and fishing effort of mechanised trawlers during the period 1990-2015. A Bayesian estimation method for Schaefer model was used for the analysis. Posterior probability densities of parameters of the model, maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and corresponding biomass were obtained through Bayesian estimation for the trawl fishery in south-west coast and the harvest levels were found to be above MSY from 2012 onwards. Forecasts of biomass and fish landings by mechanised trawlers upto 2025 under different levels of fishing effort were also simulated using the model to study the dynamic changes over time. It was found that the numbers of multiday trawlers and single day trawlers operating in this region have to be reduced by 207 and 36 respectively to retain the harvest at sustainable level

Role of ICT in Knowledge Management

It is inevitable to know about the significant role of ICT in Knowledge Management. Knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insight and experiences comprising knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizational process or practice. The concerted efforts on Knowledge Management typically focus on organizational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, integration and continuous improvement of the organization. KM efforts overlap with organizational learning and may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging the sharing of knowledge. KM efforts can help individuals and groups to share valuable organizational insights, to reduce redundant work, to avoid reinventing the wheel per se, to reduce training time for new employees, to retain intellectual capital as employees‘ turnover in an organization, and to adapt to changing environments and markets

Climate change impact on the feeding habits of Indian mackerel observed along the Kerala coast

While most food and feeding research in fisheries emphasize the feeding habits and diet components of the fish, the aim of the present work was to assess any change in the diet composition of Indian mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier, 1816) and identify the role of climate change in effecting it. Non-parametric statistical technique, the Generalized Additive Model (GAMs) was used for modeling the causal link of diet changes in relation to climate change using mgcv package of R software. Monthly Index of Relative Importance (IRI) was calculated for 36 months from January 2013 to December 2015 and major prey items in the diet were identified. Climatic variables - Sea Surface Temperature (SST), precipitation (Pr), Chlorophyll a (Chl a), salinity and Ekman transport or coastal upwelling index (CUI)) pertaining to the study area were extracted for the period. Length-wise IRI was compared to check the existing patterns in the feeding habits of the fish. The dominant prey items observed in the gut of Indian mackerel during the study period were diatoms ( Fragillaria sp., Nitzchia sp., Thalassiothrix sp., Thalassiosira sp. and Coscinodiscus sp.), dinoflagellates (Ceratium sp., Ornothocercus sp., Dinophysis sp. and Prorocentrum sp.), copepods (Calanoida, Cyclopoida and Harpacticoida), decapods (Acetes) and tintinnids (Tintinnopsis sp., Codenellopsis sp. and Flavella sp). GAM models were fitted with monthly IRI of the major prey items (copepods, diatoms, dinoflagellates, Acetes and tintinnids) in the gut and climatic variables. Model selection was done in terms of sharpening the relation between the predictors and the response variable using Akaike information criterion, R-squared and F-statistics. GAM model results revealed that occurrence of prey items in the diet of Indian mackerel were influenced by environmental variables. An increase in the relative importance of dinoflagellates, Acetes and tintintids in the diet over the historic period was observed. The study also revealed a shift in the diet composition of younger fishes. The results of the current study provide a more in-depth assessment of the nonlinear relationship between climatic variables and diet composition of Indian mackerel

Trends in abundance of marine fishery resources in India examined through dynamic factor analysis

Dynamic factor analysis (DFA) was used to identify common trends to explain the variability for a historical time series data (1980-2010) on all India annual marine fish landings for 16 resource groups. In this study, three common trends were identified for classifying the resource groups. Trend-1 increases gradually and reaches a peak in 1997, decreases sharply until 2001 and then increases further. Landings of carangids were clearly related to trend-1 with positive factor loading magnitude. Trend-1 is important for Bombayduck as well but with negative factor loading. In the case of trend-2, it is declining until 1993 and remains steady with slight fluctuations till 2003 and increases further. Both, silverbellies and pomfrets landings were determined by trend-2 with similar positive factor loadings. All other resources were associated with more than one trend. Trend-3 shows an increasing trend throughout the period with slight fluctuations. Perches, seerfishes, tunnies, flatfishes, crustaceans and molluscs formed a homogenous group associated with both trend-1 and trend-3. These trends were important for elasmobranchs too as they had similar loadings on both trends but with opposite signs. Resource-wise explanations based on the different trends are discussed citing the examples of clupeids, carangids, Bombayduck, pomfrets and silverbellies

Course Manual Winter School on Structure and Functions of Marine Ecosystem: Fisheries

Marine ecosystems comprises of diverse organisms and their ambient abiotic components in varied relationships leading to an ecosystem functioning. These relationships provides the services that are essential for marine organisms to sustain in the nature. The studies examining the structure and functioning of these relationships remains unclear and hence understanding and modelling of the ecological functioning is imperative in the context of the threats different ecosystem components are facing. The relationship between marine population and their environment is complex and is subjected to fluctuations which affects the bottom level of an ecosystem pyramid to higher trophic levels. Understanding the energy flow within the marine ecosystems with the help of primary to secondary producers and secondary consumers are potentially important when assessing such states and changes in these environments. Many of the physiological changes are known to affect the key functional group, ie. the species or group of organisms, which play an important role in the health of the ecosystem. In marine environment, phytoplankton are the main functional forms which serves as the base of marine food web. Any change in the phytoplankton community structure may lead to alteration in the composition, size and structure of the entire ecosystem. Hence, it is critical to understand how these effects may scale up to population, communities, and entire marine ecosystem. Such changes are difficult to predict, particularly when more than one trophic level is affected. The identification and quantification of indicators of changes in ecosystem functioning and the knowledge base generated will provide a suitable way of bridging issues related to a specific ecosystem. New and meaningful indicators, derived from our current understanding of marine ecosystem functioning, can be used for assessing the impact of these changes and can be used as an aid in promoting responsible fisheries in marine ecosystems. Phytoplantkon is an indicator determining the colour of open Ocean. In recent years, new technologies have emerged which involves multidisciplinary activities including biogeochemistry and its dynamics affecting higher trophic levels including fishery. The winter school proposed will provide the insights into background required for such an approach involving teaching the theory, practical, analysis and interpretation techniques in understanding the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems from ground truth measurements as well as from satellite remote sensing data. This is organized with the full funding support from Indian council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) New Delhi and the 25 participants who are attending this programme has been selected after scrutiny of their applications based on their bio-data. The participants are from different States across Indian subcontinent covering north, east, west and south. They are serving as academicians such as Professors/ scientists and in similar posts. The training will be a feather in their career and will enable them to do their academic programmes in a better manner. Selected participants will be scrutinized initially to understand their knowledge level and classes will be oriented based on this. In addition, all of them will be provided with an e-manual based on the classes. All selected participants are provided with their travel and accommodation grants. The faculty include the scientists who developed this technology, those who are practicing it and few user groups who do their research in related areas. The programme is coordinated by the Fishery Resources Assessment Division of CMFRI. This programme will generate a team of elite academicians who can contribute to sustainable management of marine ecosystem and they will further contribute to capacity building in the sector by training many more interested researchers in the years to come

പൗരാവകാശ രേഖ ഐ.സി.എ.ആർ. - സി.എം.എഫ്.ആർ.ഐ 2016-2017

Citizens’ Charter ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute 2016-201

Citizens’ Charter ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute 2016-2017

Citizens’ Charter ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute 2016-201

The Evolving Status of Fellowships and Mini-Fellowships in Diagnostic Radiology: A Survey of Program Directors and Chief Residents

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Recent changes in radiology fellowships include musculoskeletal radiology adopting a match system, interventional radiology transitioning away from diagnostic radiology to offer direct-entry programs, and a common fellowship application timeline created by the Society for Chairs of Academic Radiology Departments (SCARD). The concept of mini-fellowships has also emerged with the elimination of the oral American Board of Radiology examinations that had been administered in the final year of residency training prior to 2014. This paper seeks to assess the opinions of fellowship program directors, residency program directors, and chief residents regarding these recent changes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study using a web-based survey posed to fellowship program directors, residency program directors, and chief residents in 2020. Questions sought to explore current attitudes toward the following topics: (1) a common fellowship application timeline; (2) a common fellowship match; and (3) the status of mini-fellowships in diagnostic radiology. In addition, the number of fellowship positions for each subspecialty was estimated using subspecialty society directories, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) data, and individual program websites. RESULTS: Deidentified responses were collected electronically and aggregated. The three respondent groups preferred a common fellowship application timeline at rates of 67% among fellowship program directors, 80% residency program directors, and 74% residents. A common match system across all subspecialties was preferred at rates of 50% fellowship program directors, 74% residency program directors, and 26% chief residents. There was widespread reported compliance with the SCARD fellowship timeline policy. Subspecialty programs using the match system reported interviewing greater numbers of applicants per position. Fellowship directors and chief residents reported that the most common duration of mini-fellowship experiences was 2 to 3 months. CONCLUSION: There is a division between chief residents and program directors regarding the preference for a common radiology match. Adopting a radiology-wide fellowship match would increase the number of interviews required. The SCARD fellowship timeline policy has been successful, and there is support across stakeholders regarding the common timeline. Mini-fellowships are highly variable in length and structure

Physicochemical characteristics and benthic faunal constituents of a few seagrass and mangrove habitats of Tuticorin coast, Gulf of Mannar

Rapid industrialisation and coastal developmental activities have caused considerable damages to the coastal habitats and their associated fauna and flora of Tuticorin coast. The status of the physicochemical and biological aspects indicating the healthiness of selected seagrass and mangrove habitats of Tuticorin coast was studied during 2013-15. The water and sediment quality parameters and the benthic in-faunal constituents were assessed monthly adopting the standard procedures. Our study indicated that the mangrove habitat was profoundly impacted due to the influence of high saline effluents from neighbouring salt pans. The mean values of most of the water quality parameters like salinity (37.87±1.86ppt); chlorophyll-a (8.2±2.95mg.m-3); TSS (529.6±47.13mg.L-1) ammonia (0.12±0.02µg.L-1); nitrite (1.96±0.92µg.L-1); phosphate (8.67±2.58µg.L-1) were reported abnormal from the mangrove habitats. The seagrass habitat was impacted mainly by the activities of the neighbouring port, causing comparatively higher total suspended solids and dissolved solids in the water. Parameters like, DO, salinity, chlorophyll, TSS, NH3 , NO2 , SiO3 in seawater and coarse and fine sand proportions of sediments were significantly varied between habitats (p<0.05). The lower density and less diverse in-faunal constituents also proved the harshness of the sediments of both the habitats. The study also warrants the need for effective management strategies for conservation and the sustainable utilisation of these resources

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding approach in fisheries research in India

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is defined as the genetic material obtained from a water sample containing no distinguishing signs of source macroorganisms. The method utilizes DNA which is continuously excreted by organisms into the surrounding environment through mucus, gamates, faeces, blood and other cells, and captures, analyses and obtains the nucleotide sequence of this DNA based on an environmental sample. eDNA analysis has emerged as a potentially powerful tool to access aquatic community structures. Analysis of eDNA can give us information on the organisms, their abundance and biomass through two approaches – eDNA barcoding and eDNA metabarcoding. In the former, specific species are targeted in samples using standard or quantitative PCR, and using traditional Sanger sequencing method