Scientists will meet this month to discuss how best to utilise satellite data to identify areas of fish abundance.
Experts attending the second international symposium on SAFARI (Societal Applications in Fisheries and Aquaculture using Remote Sensing Imagery) in Kochi, India, will create a road map for utilising satellite data for the development of India’s marine fisheries sector.
“The symposium titled ‘Remote Sensing for Ecosystem Analysis and Fisheries’ will explore ways to apply the remote sensing techniques, a highly prospective facility, in the areas such as aquaculture; harvest fisheries; fisheries management; fishery environment and ecology; fresh water, estuarine and marine fisheries; and socio-economics and ICT,” said Dr A Gopalakrishnan, director of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), which sponsored the event.
Multiple uses
As well as identifying fish concentration, satellite data could also be used to provide real-time advisories on nature of the ocean, forecast various ocean phenomena such as mud bank and changes in sea-surface temperature (SST) and predict the changes occurring in the ocean ecosystem owing to climate change.
The roadmap is also expected to help refine the existing technologies in India’s marine fisheries sector and to introduce newer methods to accelerate the growth rate of the sector.
A special stakeholder meet on disaster management will aim to strengthen the communication mechanism of cyclone forecasts and other warnings into the fishermen and improving the disaster management system in Kerala.
