Skip to main content

Studying the health of Arabian Sea (hindu,)

The impacts of annual ban on trawl fishery will be assessed

The marine ecosystems of eastern Arabian Sea would soon become the stage for a series of biogeochemical and biological studies, which are expected to throw light into the ocean dynamics and economy.

The Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE), Kochi, and the Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management – Project Directorate, Chennai, both functioning under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, have drawn up a three-year-programme to study the coastal seas of western India. The researchers have primarily identified health of sea, carbon credit, biological productivity, trawl ban effects and oceanography as the thrust areas for the research.

Under the category health of sea, the researchers would assess ecosystem status of western coastal India for biological resources which are influenced either by natural processes or man-made effects.

The green house gas emissions from the ecosystems would be assessed for redefining marine carbon credit, as part of India’s commitment to the 2016 Paris Climate Change Summit, said M. Sudhakar, Director, CMLRE.

The impacts of annual ban on trawl fishery and its impact on fishery resources will be looked into. The influence of coastal upwelling and associated biogeochemistry and biological oceanography on coastal fishery including their mortality, will be studied as part of the project, said G.V.M. Gupta, the Principal Investigator of the project.

Preliminary studies carried out at the south-western coast of India, according to a project note prepared by CMLRE, have indicated that monsoon trawl ban had a positive impact on benthic production. Similar studies are essential for entire west coast to assess the overall impact of monsoon trawl ban on fishery resources, it said.

The “evolution to decay of upwelling, its dynamics and associated bio-geo-chemistry all along the eastern Arabian Sea,” the inter-relationship between winter convective mixing (oxygen minimum zone) and coastal upwelling, “factors behind the formation/intensification of seasonal hypoxia (deoxygenation) and greenhouse gases production along the eastern Arabian Sea shelf” will be monitored under the project.
The National Institute of Oceanography, Kochi, and Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, and a host of fisheries and scientific research institutions are expected to join the project.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NGT terminates chairmen of pollution control boards in 10 states (downtoearth,)

Cracking the whip on 10 State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) for ad-hoc appointments, the National Green Tribunal has ordered the termination of Chairpersons of these regulatory authorities. The concerned states are Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Rajasthan, Telangana, Haryana, Maharashtra and Manipur. The order was given last week by the principal bench of the NGT, chaired by Justice Swatanter Kumar. The recent order of June 8, 2017, comes as a follow-up to an NGT judgment given in August 2016. In that judgment, the NGT had issued directions on appointments of Chairmen and Member Secretaries of the SPCBs, emphasising on crucial roles they have in pollution control and abatement. It then specified required qualifications as well as tenure of the authorities. States were required to act on the orders within three months and frame Rules for appointment [See Box: Highlights of the NGT judgment of 2016 on criteria for SPCB chairperson appointment]. Having

High dose of Vitamin C and B3 can kill colon cancer cells: study (downtoearth)

In a first, a team of researchers has found that high doses of Vitamin C and niacin or Vitamin B3 can kill cancer stem cells. A study published in Cell Biology International showed the opposing effects of low and high dose of vitamin C and vitamin B3 on colon cancer stem cells. Led by Bipasha Bose and Sudheer Shenoy, the team found that while low doses (5-25 micromolar) of Vitamin C and B3 proliferate colon cancer stem cells, high doses (100 to 1,000 micromolar) killed cancer stem cells. Such high doses of vitamins can only be achieved through intravenous injections in colon cancer patients. The third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, colon cancer can be prevented by an intake of dietary fibre and lifestyle changes. While the next step of the researchers is to delineate the mechanisms involved in such opposing effects, they also hope to establish a therapeutic dose of Vitamin C and B3 for colon cancer stem cell therapy. “If the therapeutic dose gets validated under in vivo

SC asks Centre to strike a balance on Rohingya issue (.hindu)

Supreme Court orally indicates that the government should not deport Rohingya “now” as the Centre prevails over it to not record any such views in its formal order, citing “international ramifications”. The Supreme Court on Friday came close to ordering the government not to deport the Rohingya. It finally settled on merely observing that a balance should be struck between humanitarian concern for the community and the country's national security and economic interests. The court was hearing a bunch of petitions, one filed by persons within the Rohingya community, against a proposed move to deport over 40,000 Rohingya refugees. A three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, began by orally indicating that the government should not deport Rohingya “now”, but the government prevailed on the court to not pass any formal order, citing “international ramifications”. With this, the status quo continues even though the court gave the community liberty to approach i