Conservation of mangrove forest covers in Kochi coast

Mangroves are salt-tolerant plants of tropical and subtropical intertidal regions of the world. The specific regions where these plants occur are called mangrove ecosystems. They are breeding, feeding and nursery grounds for many estuarine and marine organisms, including finfish and shell fish. India has only 2.66% of the world’s mangroves, covering an estimated area of 4,827 sq. k

Checklist and Spatial Distribution of Molluscan Fauna in Minicoy Island, Lakshadweep, India

Among the various animal groups represented in the macrobenthic fauna of Minicoy lagoon studied, mollusks were the dominant group. Molluscan fauna were investigated from six selected stations in the sea grass beds and mangroves of the Minicoy lagoon, Lakshadweep during 1999-2001. A total of 70 species of mollusk (52 gastropods, 12 bivalves) and an additionally 7 soft mollusks are reported in the present study. The total density of molluscan fauna varied from 137-604 (no. 0.25m2), while the highest biomass was obtained during postmonsoon season at southern seagrass bed and the least was observed during premonsoon season at northern seagrass bed. Among these Gafrarium divarticatum, Terebralia palustris are found the most dominant species of Minicoy Island, India

New Polychaete Records from Seagrass Beds at Minicoy Island, Lakshadweep, India

Species composition, distribution and taxonomic description of polychaete fauna in the seagrass beds of the Minicoy lagoon, Lakshadweep, India were studied during 1999 - 2001. In 4 stations, 27 species of polychaetes belonging to 14 genera were identified. Of these 27 species, 10 species of polychaetes, belonging to 8 genera under 6 families, comprise new distributional records from Minicoy Island, and the descriptions of these species are provided. Among these, Glycera lancadivae, G. tesselata, and Eurythoe matthaii are found to be the most dominant species

Knowledge management in technical education using lean concept

Innovation, Flexibility and Rapid change-are the keywords for 21st century business environment.Industries that have traditionally delivered manufactured goods must streamline their processes and focus on the rapidly changing needs of their customers and the capabilities of their suppliers.Lean is one of the promising alternative strategy for achieving continuous improvement in business performance through identifying a company’s value stream and then systematically removing all waste.Educational Institutions are now focusing on knowledge management, and knowledge is a new paradigm for the way of work.The key issue in knowledge management in educational institution is faculty-subject allocation problem which can be solved by using the lean concept.This paper mainly concentrates on minimizing the knowledge wastage in technical institution by properly allocating the faculty to subjects. The faculty-subject allocation problem is solved using a meta-heuristic approach and a decision support system can be developed

Puducherry mangroves under sewage pollution threat need conservation

Indian mangroves have a rich diversity of soil-dwelling organisms which include micro, meio and macro forms. Mangrove ecosystem provides an ideal nursery and breeding ground for most of the marine and brackish water fish and shellfish. India has only 2.66% of the world’s mangroves1, covering an estimated area of 4827 sq. km. The present study area lies within the margins of lat. 11°90′107″– 11°90′703″N and long. 79°80′547″– 79°81′851″E. Mangrove exists as fringing vegetation over 168 ha distributed along the sides of Ariankuppam estuary, which empties into the Bay of Bengal (Coromandal coast) at Veerampatinam on the southeastern coast of Indi

Conservation and Management of Tuna Fisheries in the Indian Ocean and Indian EEZ

The focus of the study is to explore the recent trend and stock status of Indian Ocean and Indian EEZ, and its conservation and sustainable management of tuna fishereis. In the Indian Ocean, tuna catches increased rapidly from about 179,959 t in 1980 to about 832,246 t in 1995. They have continued to increase up to 2005 where the catch reached 1,318,648 t, forming about 26% of the world catch. However, since 2006 onwards there was a decline in tuna catch and in 2010 the catch was only 1,257,908 t. Tuna production in India continued to increase with fluctuations from 63,633 t during 2001-2005 to an of average 78,400 t during 2006-2010, and in 2010 the catch declined again to only 65,863 t. Tuna is an important but not a well managed fishery in the Indian Ocean and Indian EEZ. The Indian Ocean stock is currently overfished and has no proper management regulations aimed at with sustaining the stock. In the present study, sustainable management system is evaluated with information on tuna landings, stock status and major issues on tuna fishery. To address these major issues, appropriate tuna fishing policies are proposed to help sustainable development and management of tuna fishery resource in the Indian Ocean

Tuna: Fishery, Biology and Management

Tuna, a very large and charismatic food fish with a wide distributional range, are valuable both in domestic and foreign markets and hence, play a vital role in the economies of many countries especially oceanic Islands. Tunas are highly valued food fishes targeted by coastal fishers as well as distant water fishing nations. The oceanic waters adjoining the Asia-Pacific region contribute the bulk of the global tuna production. World tuna production touched the record high of 4.3 million tonnes in 2005. Although they constitute less than 5% of the world commercial catch by weight, they contribute much by dollar value (US$ 5.3 billion). Tuna does the third largest product in the international seafood trade constitute over 15%. Of the global tuna production, about 21.7% (1.2 million tonnes) is contributed by Indian Ocean. The rapid development of tuna fishery in the Indian Ocean now needs constant monitoring to know the impact of exploitation on the stocks. Tuna fishing and fisheries have become priority theme while addressing issues of development, utilization and management of fisheries in India in the light of EEZ regulations and other international conventions

Biodiversity and seasonal variation of benthic macrofauna in Minicoy Island, Lakshadweep, India

From the Indian coast only limited data are available on the benthic fauna of the seagrass communities. In this study, seasonal variation in the distribution of macrobenthos and influence of environmental parameters was explored at four seagrass beds and two mangrove stations along the Minicoy Island, Lakshadweep, India, from September 1999 to August 2001. A total of 160 macrobenthic species from eight major groups represented the macrofauna of the Minicoy Island. Of the identified taxa, molluscs 70 (gastropods 41.46%, bivalves 7.5%), polychaetes 27 (16.88%), crustaceans 30 (18.75%), echinoderms 11 (6.88%) and remaining others. Average seasonal abundance of benthic macrofauna ranged from 219 to 711 ind./m2, species diversity varied from 1.45 to 3.64 bits per individual, species richness index ranged from 4.01 to 26.17, evenness 0.69 to 1.66. In general, the higher abundance and species diversity was noticed in southern seagrass stations and northern seagrass stations, but in the mangrove stations comparatively low species diversity was observed. Three-way analysis of variance indicated that all communities resulted as being significantly different between seagrass and mangrove station, mainly when the seasonal interaction was considered. Multivariate analyses were employed to help define benthic characteristic and the relationship between environmental parameters at the six monitoring stations. Results of cluster analyses and multidimensional scale plot suggest that for mangrove region, different physiographic provinces, lower salinity, dissolved oxygen and sediment biotic structure have a higher influence on the species composition and diversity than other oceanographic conditions