KOCHI: Exploring the prospects of India’s achievements in satellite technology, the Central Marne Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) will initiate steps to utilise ocean-related data being provided by various satellites or scores of ocean-related studies and analyses.The CMFRI move aims at identifying areas of fish abundance, providing advisories to fishers on the nature of oceans, understanding in advance ocean phenomena such as mud bank and changes in sea-surface temperature and predicting the changes occurring in ocean ecosystem owing to climate change.
As part of utilising the global expertise to develop required framework for the purpose, the CMFRI has forged a linkage with the SAFARI (Societal Applications in Fisheries and Aquaculture using Remote Sensing Imagery), an international project developed under the Group on Earth Observation (GEO), currently ‘Oceans and Society: Blue Planet’ initiative of the United Nations. The institute will also host the second international symposium of SAFARI in Kochi from January 15 to 17 next year.
The symposium titled ‘Remote Sensing for Ecosystem Analysis and Fisheries’ will find ways and means to apply remote sensing techniques in areas such as aquaculture; harvest fisheries; fisheries management; fishery environment and ecology; freshwater, estuarine and marine fisheries and socio-economics and ICT. Eminent scientists working on global ocean satellite data, technocrats, oceanographers and marine experts from across the world will converge at the symposium to prepare a road map on using the satellite data for the development of the marine fisheries in the Indian context.
“At present, we are unable to predict fish abundance, and there is a delay in assessing the areas of abundance and its dissemination to fishermen. Similar to weather predictions, there is a need to generate prediction-based advisories to be given to fishermen so they will have time to plan their harvest operations,” said Grinson George, senior scientist at CMFRI and the coordinator of the symposium. “The conference will discuss the development of user groups which can use the satellite data for specific purposes related to fishing and oceanography. This will help refine the existing technologies and address gaps in technologies which can support fishing and related activities,” he said.
The motive
The CMFRI has forged a linkage with the SAFARI (Societal Applications in Fisheries and Aquaculture using Remote Sensing Imagery).
The institute will host the second international symposium of SAFARI in Kochi from January 15 to 17 next year.