Status of marine fish stock assessment in India and development of a sustainability index

India has a coastline of 8129 km. Landings by commercial fishing vessels takes place at 1332 centres during day and night by 58,911 mechanized craft, 75,591 motorized (with outboard engine) and 104,270 traditional craft (CMFRI, 2006). Marine fisheries are an important source of food, employment and foreign exchange. About one million people work directly in this sector, producing 3 million tonnes annually valued at about 3 billion US $at production level (CMFRI, 2007). India earns 1.6 billion US$ by exporting fish and fishery products. India is among the top ten fish producing countries of the world, contributing 3.5% to the total world marine fish production. Concerned about the status of marine fish stocks in the Indian EEZ, the country has put in place appropriate institutional mechanisms to monitor and forecast fishery yields for the last 25 year

Some characteristics of the mackerel fishery in India

The recent increases in the catch of mackerel from the deeper waters of the Calicut - Cochin area indicate that the fish move down to deeper areas during summer due to the thermocline. Spreading of trawling to deeper waters, with the opening up of export market for cephalopods, can be the reason for the increased catch of mackerel by trawls. The most successful period of recruitment to the mackerel fishery coincides with upwelling (Mackerel form large shoals to feed on the plankton that is abundant due to upwelling, making surface fishery highly successful.) which guarantees abundance of stock during the period. Intensity of upwelling increases catchability and can result in a decline in spawning stock and recruitment. This can be one of the reasons for wide annual fluctuations in the catch of this resource

Stock assessment of coastal tunas in the Indian seas

Tuna and billfish production from the Indian coastal waters, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar islands during the period 1985-'99 averaged 40,204 t. The contribution by E.affinis, Athazard, T.tonggol, K.pelamis and T.albacares (young ones) were 18,5041,6,8521,3,093 t, 3,3921 and 2,2111 respectively. Drift gill net was the major gear employed in the coastal tuna fishery. The length frequency data collected on the above species during 1990-'98 at seven centres along the Indian coast were analysed employing FiSAT programme to estimate their growth and mortality parameters, exploitation rates and relative yield per recmit

Status of exploitation of coastal tunas in the Indian seas

Tuna and billfish production from Indian seas during the period 1985-'99 evinced an increasing trend and the landings fluctuated between 24,287 t (1987) and 53,6621 (1992). The average annual production during the said period was 40,2041, contributing to 3.6% of the total pelagic fish landings and 1.8% of the total marine fish landings. On an average, 24% of the total tuna and billfish production during 1991-'99 was contributed by northwest coast, 2% by Andaman and Nicobar islands and 14.9% by Lakshadweep. Among the maritime states, Kerala (36 %), Gujarat (18.1%) Tamilnadu (11.6%), Maharashtra (5.9%), Kamataka (5%), Andhra Pradesh (4.4 %) and Goa (2%) were the prime tuna producing states

1825P Prevalence of cancer among e-cigarette smokers compared to non-smokers: A retrospective cross-sectional survey study of NHANES-CDC

Background: Current e-cigarette use has been rising, assuming as a safe alternative to traditional smoking. Therefore, we aim to evaluate the prevalence of cancer and types of cancers amongst e-cigarette and traditional smokers. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional survey study was performed using NHANES (National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey) database from 2015 to 2018. History of cancer (MCQ220), type of cancers (MCQ230a), and smoking status (E-cigarette: SMQ900 or SMQ905 and Traditional smoking: SMQ020) were identified. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to find out prevalence and association between e-cigarette smoking and cancer. We have excluded respondents with dual smoking. Results: Out of 154,856 participants, 7756 (5.01%) were e-cigarette users, 48625 (31.4%) were traditional smokers, 98475 (63.59%) were non-smokers. Females (49 vs 38%), Mexican Americans (20 vs 13%), high annual household income (\u3e$100,000: 23 vs 15%) were having a higher prevalence of e-cigarette smoking in comparison with traditional smoking. (p\u3c0.0001) Prevalence of cancer (any type) was 11.61%. Cancer prevalence was higher amongst traditional smokers in comparison with e-cigarette smokers. (16.77 vs 2.32%; p\u3c0.0001) E-cigarette smokers were younger at the diagnosis of 1st cancer in comparison with traditional smokers. (median: 45 vs 63-years; p\u3c0.0001) Cervical (21.99 vs 2.01%), thyroid (10.64 vs 2.45%), leukemias (8.51 vs 1.08%), and breast (12.06 vs 12.01%) cancers were more prevalent amongst e-cigarette smokers in comparison to traditional smokers. (p\u3c0.0001) In adjusted multivariable regression analysis, e-cigarette smokers [aOR: 1.3 (95%CI: 1.32-1.33); p\u3c0.0001] and traditional smokers [1.6 (1.64-1.65); p\u3c0.0001] were having higher odds of prevalence of cancer in comparison with non-smoker. Conclusions: E-cigarette smokers had an early age of cancer onset and higher odds of cancer prevalence. Females had higher use of e-cigarette and cervical, thyroid, and breast cancers were prevalent amongst e-cigarette users. More prospective studies should be planned to mitigate the risk and before considering e-cigarette as a safe alternative to traditional smoking

Application of biological and fisheries attributes to assess the vulnerability and resilience of tropical marine fish species

Taking advantage of published data on life-history traits and short-term information on fishery parameters from 3132 records for 644 fish stocks along the coast of India, we calculated resilience (R) and vulnerability (V). Further, we developed an Index of Resilience and Vulnerability (IRV) for 133 species of tropical finfishes, crustaceans, and molluscs. Using 7 resilience and 6 vulnerability attributes, two-dimensional scatter plots of the resilience and vulnerability scores were generated and the Euclidean distance and angle from the origin to each point were calculated to determine IRV and the effect of fishing on fish species. By ranking the species, the top 10 highly resilient, highly vulnerable, and high-risk species (low IRV) were identified. While small-sized species with fast growth rate and low trophic level were among the highly resilient species, large predatory species such as sharks and barracudas were among the highly vulnerable and high-risk species. More than 100 of the 133 species were resilient-yet-vulnerable, and most crustaceans showed high resilience. Differences in IRV scores among species within the same family were discernible, indicating the differences in the biological characteristics and response to fishing. Sensitivity analysis indicated that an abridged IRV with 6 attributes works similar to 13 attributes and can be used in data-deficient situations. Comparison of R and V of IRV with other assessments showed different results because of divergences in the objectives, number and types of attributes, and thresholds used. These assessments do not convey the same information and therefore great care must be taken for reproducing these frameworks to other fisheries. The results of IRV analysis can be useful for stock assessments and in developing effective management measures in combination with other complementary information

Stock assessment of mackerel in the Indian seas

Along both the coasts they start appearing in the catches when they are about two months old. But, along the west coast they are fiilly recruited to the fishery at an age of 6 months and along the east coast this happens at an age of 9 months. Bulk of the catches from west coast is by large seines of small meshes where young ones are liable to be caught and peak catches are from the size group of 140-149 mm. The major gear along the east coast is gill net with larger mesh and peak catches are from size group 190-199 mm. Along the west coast the estimated annual total mortality is 3.6. With an estimated M of 2.64 the fishing mortality F is 0.96 at an exploitation rate of 0.27 and E _^ estimated is 0.70

Indian Marine Fish Life Histories (INMARLH) database for determining resilience and vulnerability of tropical marine species

Taking advantage of published data on life-history traits and short-term information on fishery parameters from 3132 records for 644 fish stocks along the coast of India, we calculated resilience (R) and vulnerability (V). Further, we developed an Index of Resilience and Vulnerability (IRV) for 133 species of tropical finfishes, crustaceans, and molluscs. Using 7 resilience and 6 vulnerability attributes, two-dimensional scatter plots of the resilience and vulnerability scores were generated and the Euclidean distance and angle from the origin to each point were calculated to determine IRV and the effect of fishing on fish species. By ranking the species, the top 10 highly resilient, highly vulnerable, and high-risk species (low IRV) were identified. While small-sized species with fast growth rate and low trophic level were among the highly resilient species, large predatory species such as sharks and barracudas were among the highly vulnerable and high-risk species. More than 100 of the 133 species were resilient-yet-vulnerable, and most crustaceans showed high resilience. Differences in IRV scores among species within the same family were discernible, indicating the differences in the biological characteristics and response to fishing. Sensitivity analysis indicated that an abridged IRV with 6 attributes works similar to 13 attributes and can be used in data-deficient situations. Comparison of R and V of IRV with other assessments showed different results because of divergences in the objectives, number and types of attributes, and thresholds used. These assessments do not convey the same information and therefore great care must be taken for reproducing these frameworks to other fisheries. The results of IRV analysis can be useful for stock assessments and in developing effective management measures in combination with other complementary information

Machine-Part cell formation through visual decipherable clustering of Self Organizing Map

Machine-part cell formation is used in cellular manufacturing in order to process a large variety, quality, lower work in process levels, reducing manufacturing lead-time and customer response time while retaining flexibility for new products. This paper presents a new and novel approach for obtaining machine cells and part families. In the cellular manufacturing the fundamental problem is the formation of part families and machine cells. The present paper deals with the Self Organising Map (SOM) method an unsupervised learning algorithm in Artificial Intelligence, and has been used as a visually decipherable clustering tool of machine-part cell formation. The objective of the paper is to cluster the binary machine-part matrix through visually decipherable cluster of SOM color-coding and labelling via the SOM map nodes in such a way that the part families are processed in that machine cells. The Umatrix, component plane, principal component projection, scatter plot and histogram of SOM have been reported in the present work for the successful visualization of the machine-part cell formation. Computational result with the proposed algorithm on a set of group technology problems available in the literature is also presented. The proposed SOM approach produced solutions with a grouping efficacy that is at least as good as any results earlier reported in the literature and improved the grouping efficacy for 70% of the problems and found immensely useful to both industry practitioners and researchers.Comment: 18 pages,3 table, 4 figure

Minimum Legal Size (MLS) of capture to avoid growth overfishing of commercially exploited fish and shellfish species of Kerala

During the current fishing season, considerable amount of juveniles of small pelagics have been captured along Kerala coast in a targeted manner to meet the demand of fish meal plants. Exploitation of juvenile fish results in considerable economic loss, in terms of what could have been obtained had the fishers waited for a few months and allowed the animal to grow in size and weight. This phenomenon called as growth over-fishing also causes serious damage to the fish stock in terms of long-term sustainability of the resources. A minimum legal size (MLS) is seen as a fisheries management tool with the ability to protect juvenile fish, maintain spawning stocks and control the sizes of fish caught. The MLS sets the smallest size at which a particular species can be legally retained if caught. MLS could be used to protect immature fish ensuring that enough fish survive to grow and spawn, control the numbers and sizes of fish landed, maximize marketing and economic benefits and promote the aesthetic values of fish