Summer School on Fish Stock Assessment Begins at CMFRI

KOCHI: In a bid to train young researchers on advanced methods of fish stock assessment, the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (

CMFRI

) has launched a 21-day Summer School on Wednesday.

Dr S Karthikeyan, Fisheries Director of Kerala inaugurated the School, which is being organised by the

Fishery Resource Assessment Division

of the CMFRI. He said that policies in fisheries sector is greatly influenced by the fish stock assessment studies. “The Fisheries Department will collaborate with the CMFRI to promote cage fish farming in the State and to explore prospects of deep sea fishing and identifying potential fishing zone”, he said.

In his presidential address, CMFRI Director Dr A Goplakrishnan said the institute would take steps convene a joint meeting of all the coastal

States

to implement the Minimum Legal Size restrictions in all the maritime States uniformly for preventing juvenile fishing. He also said that overcapacity is a major issue in fishing sector. “Overcapacity of fishing boats, exploitation of juvenile fishes, climate change and poor condition of the fish stock are some of the major reasons for decline in the availability of marine fishery resources”, he said.

“The living natural resource like marine fish has capacity to rebuild. If not monitored and properly managed, over exploitation will lead to stock depletion and some may become extinct. Harvest of this resource needs to be maintained at sustainable level through monitoring and control”, Dr Gopalakrishnan said.

Dr T V Sathianandan, Head, Fishery Resources Assessment Division and Dr Somy Kuriakose, principal scientist also spoke on the occasion.

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