Department of Fisheries, Lakshadweep

The Directorate of Fisheries Lakshadweep took its origin in 1959 as a small organisation headed by a Fisheries Officer and assisted by a couple of fisheries inspectors, making a significant turn in the history of fisheries development in the islands. The exploitation and proper management of fisheries resources to improve the economic condition of local inhabitants was the primary objective. Geographically scattered nature and remoteness of the islands turned out to be real hurdles in the implementation of fishery development schemes. During the sixtees, fishing had been by primitive methods of harpooning, confined to the lagoon and reef areas. Tuna was not caught in any island except Minicoy and the fish catch was insufficient even for domestic consumption. Inhabitants were illiterate and with poor socio-economic set up

Status and programmes of marine fisheries development and management in Lakshadweep

Tuna and tuna like fishes of Indian seas which remain largely underexploited at present, held the greatest promise for development of fishing Industry In India. The percentage composition of total tunas in the all India marine fish production ranged from 0.3 In 1970 to 1.36 In 1984-85. Lakshadweep a group of coral Islands in the Arabian Sea has got the distinction of being the only region In India where an organised fishery for tuna has been established In the small scale mechanised sector. Lakshadweep waters consisting of 20000 sq.kms. of territorial waters and 400000 sq.kms. of exclusive economic zone is potentially rich for tuna and shark. It is estimated that Lakshadweep waters support of fishable stock of 50000 tonnes of skipjack, 50000 tonnes of deep water tuna and allied species and 1 lakh tonnes of shark. Against this the present exploitation is 4807 tonnes of tuna In 1986 forming 87% of its total marine fish catch and around 16% of the total tuna catch of India. The principal gear employed is pole and line. Troll lines and hand lines form subsidiary gears

Present status of tuna fisheries of Lakshadweep

The tuna catch of the mainland coast of India is chiefly contributed by incidental catches where as in Lakshadweep the effort is specifically directed on tunas. Pole and line and troll line are the principal gears employed for capture. Hand lines and drift gillnets are also rarely used. Agatti, Bitra, Suheli and Minicoy are the major pole and line fishing centres which together contribute 75% of the total tuna catc

Classification techniques for remotely sensed data

Hyperspectral imaging sensors measure the radiance of the materials within each pixel area at a very large number of contiguous spectral wavelength bands. So, they can generate hundreds of images of a scene on the real surface. The radiance is converted into hyperspectral data cube digital form. The spectral information available in a hyperspectral image (cube) may serve to classify the nature of the target object because every material had a unique fixed spectrum and could be used as a spectral signature of the material and perhaps provide additional information for further processing and exploitation. Hyperspectral data contain extremely rich spectral attributes, which offer the potential to discriminate more detailed classes with classification accuracy

Soil fusaria from oil palm habitats in Malaysia

Fusarium species were isolated from 22 sampling sites in 4 oil palm plantations located in different regions of Peninsular Malaysia using Peptone-PCNB medium. Eight species and two varieties of Fusarium viz., F. solani, F. oxysporum, F. oxysporum var. redolens, F. semitectum, F. moniliforme, F. moniliforme var. subglutinans, F. equiseti, F. longipes, F. lateritium and F. heterosporum were isolated. Among these, F. solani and F. oxysporum were the most prevalent species followed by F. semitectum and F. moniliforme. The other 5 species and 2 varieties of Fusarium were of sporadic occurrence. Generally, soils from areas with young palms had larger number and greater variety of Fusarium species when compared to soils from mature and old palm areas. The rhizosp here soil contained a greater variety of Fusarium species than soils in the avenue of palms (non-rhizosphre soil)

Cultural variants of fusaria from oil palm habitats

Variation in cultural and morphological characteristics existed in both the parent isolates and subcultures of 8 species of Fusarium isolated from oil palm soils. Based on pigmentation, mycelial characters and conidial measurements, different "morphological types" from parent isolates within a species were distinguished. Constant subculturing of the parent isolates gave rise to various cultural variants. The variants were the slimy-pionnotal, mycelial and ropy types or were in the form ofpatches or sections which differed in pigmentation from the parent colony

Eradication of uneconomical fishes with simple gill nets at Hirakud reservoir

Experiments with simple gill nets of mesh bar 25, 30, 35, 40 and 45 mm were carried out to determine the suitable mesh size for the eradication of the uneconomical fishes of Hirakud reservoir. Results show that net with 25 mm bar is more suitable particularly for Gudusia chapra (Ham), Rohtee cotio (Day) and Eutropichthys vacha (Ham)

Stick held drag net for shore line fishes of reservoirs

Observations on the use of stick held drag nets for the removal of shore line fish, which adversely affect the growth of commercially important species in reservoirs, are presented