Kochi needs to be declared as the ‘Fisheries Valley of India’ in view of the technologies coming out of the research institutes in and around Kochi, says V. Prakash, CSIR scientist.
Mariculture, aquaculture and ornamental fish culture are the money spinners today, he said while delivering the golden jubilee lecture at the Society of Fisheries Technologists India here.
As ‘Aquaceutical’ is the new word in the field of neutraceuticals, Prakash said that the need of the hour is integration of value addition and aquaceuticals.
He pointed out that the role of nutrition and neutraceuticals in today’s world of quality aging is very big. Aqua based vaccines are the future promise for health, he added.
On climate change and its effect on fish wealth, he emphasised that an integrated research need to be undertaken. Every year, 16 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide is emitted world over which affects the ocean also.
To mitigate this, he said integrated approach is the key which can be through the process of traditional knowledge and modern scientific data management.
The SOFTI golden jubilee celebrations ended with an international symposium on “Greening fisheries – Towards green technologies in fisheries”.
Inaugurating the symposium, Kerala Governor, Nikhil Kumar called upon the scientific community to develop new and appropriate technologies to benefit the fishermen as well as the fishing industry without indulging in over exploitation of the ocean bounty.
The expectation of the laymen is that the research has to be cautionary on how the existing technologies can be improved upon keeping in mind the sustainability of fisheries, he said.
K.Gopakumar, former Deputy Director General (Fisheries), ICAR, New Delhi said that today fishery technologies and fisheries science emerged as a major discipline in science. Creation of a large number of fisheries colleges, universities and processing industries shows the importance of this science.
