Port Blair, May 10: An interface meeting of officials from A & N Administration and Research Institutions involved in fisheries related research was held on 10th May 2012 at Library Conference Hall of Central Agricultural Research Institute to discuss the issues confronting island fisheries and evolve strategies for working together to address them comprehensively.
Dr. D.R. Singh, Director, CARI in his opening remarks informed the house about the objectives behind the interface meeting convened in order to strengthen the inter institutional linkages of different fisheries research institutions in the islands so that the cumulative research capabilities helped to address island specific issues and to develop a sound knowledge base on island fisheries and its resources.
The deliberations started with an in-house presentation of research activities by Dr. P. Krishnan, of Fisheries Science Division, CARI followed by Dr. P.M. Mohan from Dept. of Ocean Studies and Marine Biology, Brookshabad, Pondicherry University; Dr. P.T. Rajan of Zoological Survey of India, Haddo; Dr. N. V. Vinith Kumar, NIOT, Minnie Bay and Dr. D. Thinesh Santhar from Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture, Kodiyaghat.
The five organizations working on fisheries in the islands highlighted their strengths in infrastructure and technology besides the critical gaps for supplementation and the need for evolving a working group by strengthening the inter-group communication. Dr. Senthil Kumar IFS, DCF (Wild Life) and Director of Science & Technology emphasized on the issues on vulnerability of Andaman Islands to climate change. The research back up required for A & N Administration was sensitized by Dr. V. Krishnamurthy, Director of Fisheries. He further emphasized on the logistic arrangements available for promoting fisheries in the islands and complimented the Director, CARI and his team in conducting the first of its kind interface meet for revitalizing island fisheries. The programme ended with summing up of the proceedings of the FISH interface by Dr. Grinson George, Scientist of CARI.
