Fishing does not have to be a gamble. It can be a scientific mission where researchers follow the movement of various fish, mark areas with abundant feed and direct the fishermen to those locations, thus reducing their time, money and fuel expenditures.
Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Systems, based in Hyderabad and under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has been effectively providing Potential Fishing Zones (PFZ) advisories on tuna and other marine species through sea surface temperature and chlorophyll distribution analysis. The Advisories which are quite beneficial to over nine lakh fishing villagers or so comprise these languages, English, Hindi and eight coastal regional languages.
Nutrient upwelling
INCOIS scientists have now found out that ‘Malabar sea upwelling’, which is the process of deeper water migrating up to the surface, is very important in determining the distribution of mackerel fish off the southwestern coast of India, which accords with its name implies.
The introduction of nutrients at the sea surface aids the proliferation of plankton which provides food and spawning sites for small fishes. Such small fishes are then further utilized as food by mackerel in such areas. Further, factors such as rainfall distribution and temperature of the seawater at different depths were also found to affect the mackerel catches near the Malabar region.
Research conducted regarding relationships between ocean parameters notably informs sustainable fisheries management policies in Karnataka and Kerala the scientists elaborate.
“Our study also assists in the recognition of the optimal conditions, which encourage the formation of mackerel congregation areas by categorizing the seawater temperature at various depths and other related parameters. This information can allow fishers to fish in zones populated with a lot of mackerel, which will save fuel and increase their returns,” says T M Balakrishnan Nair INCOIS Group Director, Ocean Modelling Assimilation and Research Services Group.
AI predictive models
He explained that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are central to establishing a predictive model for Indian mackerel PFZ advices making more effective recommendations available for fishermen in a timely manner.
These results make the information base readily available to policymakers with the purpose of devising effective fishery management practices for the mackerel convex some aspects of life for some dependent. Work is underway to convert the PFZ advisories into advisories with a forecasting aspect.
With all the factors affecting the mackerel population structure in India, India has emerged as the leading producer of mackerel accounting for 90% of World Mackerel production. Mackerel for instance accounted for 77 % of the total mackerel produced in the country which was accounted from the west coast and 23% from the east coast. This study further examines the impact of PFZ lines in the area and the effect of these lines on the mackerel landings on some of the coastlines scenic to these zones.
Other scientists involved in the research which are part of this article are: A multidecadal study of Malabar upwelling system impacting Indian Mackerel landings off coasts of Karnataka and Kerala, we east Arabian, sea, e a S. Jha, S.D. Sudhakar, S. Malummer, S ouc. J Helen in the last issue off the journal i of marine systems.
