The Visitor Perceptions on Whale-watching Tours based on Mirissa, Sri Lanka

Whale-watching is one of the fastest-growing sectors of wildlife tourism in the world. The waters off Sri Lanka have been identified as important habitats for Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus); a species listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Coastal destinations of Mirissa in the south-west, Trincomalee in the north-east and Kalpitiya on the west coast have emerged as popular places for whale watching, especially among foreigners. However, unregulated boat-based tourism and related visitor disturbance on cetacean populations inhabiting these waters has now become a serious concern. Social media at present is playing an important role as major information sources for travelers. Amidst the social-media websites that contain travel-related content, TripAdvisor is considered to be the most popular as it provides a social interaction platform for travelers to share their experiences about a visit to a certain destination. These reviews serve as reliable and unbiased information for contemporary travel researchers. As such, this study attempted to explore the positive and negative attributes of the whale watching industry in Mirissa, Southern Province of Sri Lanka. Content-analysis of a total of 131 reviews posted in TripAdvisor during the period from 01st January 2015 to 31st December 2016 found five positive attributes and four negative attributes associated with the whale watching industry in Mirissa. Probability of encountering good numbers of whales, quality of the services offered by boat operators, crew performance, tour organization, and the efforts taken by relevant stakeholders to conserve whales were the positive attributes revealed by the analysis. The negative attributes associated with whale-watching industry included the discrepancies in prices, duration of the tour, distance maintained during whale watching (boats getting too close to whales), and number of passengers per vessel (overcrowding).Visitors were moderately concerned on the size and quality of the vessels. It was revealed that 10 out of 11 attributes highlighted by the visitors are tour-operator related aspects, and this calls for an overall improvement of the tour operator standards in the whale-watching industry. Impetus for sustainable marine reserve management to assure better visitor experiences are further discussed.Keywords: Indian ocean, Marine mammals, Sri Lanka, Ecotourism, Whale watching, Cetacean

Geographical and temporal distribution of SARS-CoV-2 clades in the WHO European Region, January to June 2020

We show the distribution of SARS-CoV-2 genetic clades over time and between countries and outline potential genomic surveillance objectives. We applied three available genomic nomenclature systems for SARS-CoV-2 to all sequence data from the WHO European Region available during the COVID-19 pandemic until 10 July 2020. We highlight the importance of real-time sequencing and data dissemination in a pandemic situation. We provide a comparison of the nomenclatures and lay a foundation for future European genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2.Peer reviewe

Bean and beverage quality - Prospects of four F1 hybrids of coffee (Coffea arabica L.) in India

In coffee, both physical quality attributes as assessed by the colour and size of the beans and cup quality of the beverage rated based on sensory analysis are the important criteria for determining market price. In general, quality is dependent on genotype and also influenced by the growing conditions. The bean and beverage quality of pure C. arabica varieties is far superior to diploid introgressed arabica genotypes developed for improved host resistance. Thus, integrating the host resistance without affecting quality parameters is very imperative in arabica coffee breeding. Four F1 hybrids (S.5083, S.5084, S.5085 & S.5086) developed from reciprocal crosses between the most popular semi-dwarf arabica variety ‘Chandragiri’ and Sln.10, an auto-tetraploid of a diploid inter-specific hybrid, used as a donor for rust resistance, were evaluated for physical quality traits for four seasons and cup profiles for two seasons. Among the four hybrids, S.5085 and S.5086 recorded bold bean size with 70.05 per cent and 69.75 per cent of mean ‘A’ grade beans, respectively. The ‘B’ grade ranged from 9.5 per cent to 10.4 per cent in hybrids as against 16.8 per cent in Chandragiri. The Pea berry ranged from 10.1 per cent to 12.5 per cent, indicating high fertility in hybrids. The cup qualities of S.5085 and S.5086 were also found superior with a cumulative average score of 80.3 and 78.3 respectively, compared to parents; 71.6 in Chandragiri and 77.3 in Sln.10. The present study established the superiority of S.5085 and S.5086 in quality parameters and therefore has potential implications in the commercial exploitation of these two F1 hybrids that also manifested high levels of field tolerance to coffee leaf rust

Genetic diversity and introgression analyses in coffee (Coffea arabica L.) using molecular markers

5 ilus. 29 ref.DNA markers (AFLP,RAPD, RFLP, SSR) were recently used to assess the genetic diversity among wild and cultivated C. arabica accessions, and to detect introgressions from C. canephora and C. liberica into C. arabica genome. The results allowed for the definition of breeding strategies using the whole genetic diversity that are conserved in field genebanks and for the control of alien gene transfer to improve arabica cultivars

Genetic linkage map of Coffea canephora : effect of segregation distortion and analysis of recombination rate in male and female meioses

DOI: 10.1139/gen-44-4-589International audienc