On a whale washed ashore at Calicut

A dead whale was washed ashore at a place called Kannanparambu, about Ix km. south of South Beach, one of the fish landing centres of Calicut on the afternoon of 25th May 1966. The whale was first noticed that morning off Vellayil fish landing centre with its ventral portion rising out of water surface. The fishermen at first mistook the same for an upturned boat, but as they observed it at close quarters, they could recognise the whale (Fig. 1). On an examination, it was found to be in a putrefied state, though not in an advanced state of decomposition

An undesirable method of fishing using poisonous and toxic chemicals

A survey made at the landing centres north of Madras Fisheries Harbour upto Ennore revealed that the local fishermen use some chemical for fishing in areas with rocky bottoms and boulders mostly during rough seas. Since the chemical contains cyanide and lead there is no doubt that the chemical complex material is a health hazard not only to the local fishermen but also to those consumers who use the fish for food. Investigations revealead that more and more fishermen resort to toxic and poisonous agents to narcotize the fish in their environments and catch them since it is an easy way without involving expenditure or much fishing effort. This method of fishing using cyanide and lead containing products will pose a health problem even to those fishermen in the long run by their constant handling of these chemicals

Occurrence of eggs of Stolephorus bataviensis In the fishing grounds off Madras

The pelagic egg of Stolephorus bataviensis is described. The egg is elliptical in shape, with a knob at one end

Occurrence of eggs of myctophidae in the shelf region Off Madras coast

A descriptive account of the egg hitherto not reported from Bay of Bengal belonging to the family Myctophidae is given

Underwater acoustic instrumentation for investigating deep scattering layer

The instruments used for the DSL studies were scientific echo-sounder for detection, Isacc's Kid Midwater trawl for sampling mesopelagics and the trawl sonde to lower the IKMT to the exact depth at which the DSL appeared. Opening of the IKMT and the temperature of the seawater at which the DSL appeared was also recorded on the trawl sonde system. The echoscope connected to the echosounder showed the DSL in different colours depending upon its density. The continuous monitoring on echogram revealed that the DSL observed at surface during night and at 600 m depth during day

On the occurrence of puerulus of Spiny lobster Panulirus polyphagus (Herbst) Along the Madras coast

The occurrence of the pusrulus stagi of the spiny lobster, Panulinis polyphagus (Herbst) is reported for the first time from the Madras coast along with brief notes on the material

On a mackerel larva (Rastrelliger sp.) from the inshore waters of Madras

The authors collected a mackerel larva measureing 2.98 mm in total length in a surface plankton tow at 05.30 hours on 22.3.197

Culture of live feed organisms

In any maricuUure practice, availability of seed is one of the prime requisites for sustaining growth, development and to make the activity viable ecologically and economically. As the natural source of seed is often beset with environmental / conservational problems, the dependable source is production through hatchery techniques. Uninterrupted production and supply of live feeds alone can sustain hatchery operations and to feed the emerging larvae or post larvae with different feed requirements at different stages of development / growth. Technologies developed by CMFRl in this line are given in this paper. The method of culturing important live feed organisms such as micro-algae, rotifers, cladocerans and Artemia salina along with their harvesting and preservation are briefly described in this accoun

Comparative growth of seven species of micro-algae in artificial and natural media

Results of an experiment to compare the growth of seven species of microalgae in natural seawater and an artificial medium are presented. Artificial medium was found to support better growth of algae under identical culture conditions. Based on the findings, the artificial medium was suggested as ideal for maintenance of stock cultures in the shrimp hatcheries along the east coast where temporal variations in hydrological conditions are well known

A note on the occurrence of mature oilsardine, Sardinella longiceps val., off Madras coast

The occurrence of mature oilsardine, Sardinella longiceps, during January- March of 1978 in Madras waters is reported and its significance discussed. The size ranges of 5. longiceps in the different months of their occurrence are given