Vocational education and fisheries

Vocational courses in fisheries are offered in 4 states in India. The technologies in fisheries developed offer good scope for vocational training for self employment. There is an urgent need to have radical revision of the course content to make the students vocationally competent.

Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary Area to be Avoided (ATBA) Education and Monitoring Program

The National Marine Sanctuaries Act (16 U.S.C. 1431, as amended) gives the Secretary of Commerce the authority to designate discrete areas of the marine environment as National Marine Sanctuaries and provides the authority to promulgate regulations to provide for the conservation and management of these marine areas. The waters of the Outer Washington Coast were recognized for their high natural resource and human use values and placed on the National Marine Sanctuary Program Site Evaluation List in 1983. In 1988, Congress directed NOAA to designate the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (Pub. L. 100-627). The Sanctuary, designated in May 1994, worked with the U.S. Coast Guard to request the International Maritime Organization designate an Area to be Avoided (ATBA) on the Olympic Coast. The IMO defines an ATBA as "a routeing measure comprising an area within defined limits in which either navigation is particularly hazardous or it is exceptionally important to avoid casualties and which should be avoided by all ships, or certain classes of ships" (IMO, 1991). This ATBA was adopted in December 1994 by the Maritime Safety Committee of the IMO, “in order to reduce the risk of marine casualty and resulting pollution and damage to the environment of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary”, (IMO, 1994). The ATBA went into effect in June 1995 and advises operators of vessels carrying petroleum and/or hazardous materials to maintain a 25-mile buffer from the coast. Since that time, Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS) has created an education and monitoring program with the goal of ensuring the successful implementation of the ATBA. The Sanctuary enlisted the aid of the U.S. and Canadian coast guards, and the marine industry to educate mariners about the ATBA and to use existing radar data to monitor compliance. Sanctuary monitoring efforts have targeted education on tank vessels observed transiting the ATBA. OCNMS's monitoring efforts allow quantitative evaluation of this voluntary measure. Finally, the tools developed to monitor the ATBA are also used for the more general purpose of monitoring vessel traffic within the Sanctuary. While the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary does not currently regulate vessel traffic, such regulations are within the scope of the Sanctuary’s Final Environmental Impact Statement/Management Plan. Sanctuary staff participate in ongoing maritime and environmental safety initiatives and continually seek opportunities to mitigate risks from marine shipping.(PDF contains 44 pages.)

The impact of molecular biology on assessment of water quality: advantages and limitations of current techniques

The advent of molecular biology has had a dramatic impact on all aspects of biology, not least applied microbial ecology. Microbiological testing of water has traditionally depended largely on culture techniques. Growing understanding that only a small proportion of microbial species are culturable, and that many microorganisms may attain a viable but non-culturable state, has promoted the development of novel approaches to monitoring pathogens in the environment. This has been paralleled by an increased awareness of the surprising genetic diversity of natural microbial populations. By targeting gene sequences that are specific for particular microorganisms, for example genes that encode diagnostic enzymes, or species-specific domains of conserved genes such as 16S ribosomal RNA coding sequences (rrn genes), the problems of culture can be avoided. Technical developments, notably in the area of in vitro amplification of DNA using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), now permit routine detection and identification of specific microorganisms, even when present in very low numbers. Although the techniques of molecular biology have provided some very powerful tools for environmental microbiology, it should not be forgotten that these have their own drawbacks and biases in sampling. For example, molecular techniques are dependent on efficient lysis and recovery of nucleic acids from both vegetative forms and spores of microbial species that may differ radically when growing in the laboratory compared with the natural environment. Furthermore, PCR amplification can introduce its own bias depending on the nature of the oligonucleotide primers utilised. However, despite these potential caveats, it seems likely that a molecular biological approach, particularly with its potential for automation, will provide the mainstay of diagnostic technology for the foreseeable future.

Education and research - the "El Niño" years

From a special issue: A Brief History of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands 1959-1988

Vocational education for the development of knowledge system in fisheries sector

The paper aims to give the concept and functional approach of knowledge system with reference to the fisheries sector. The background and strategies to develop knowledge workers by translating the concept of knowledge system are presented. The job opportunities given in the paper strengthen the need of the development of knowledge workers through vocational education and training. The Vocational Education Programme in the backdrop can be effective both in the formal system of education through different models suggested and through the non-formal system. The modular courses varying from 50 hours and 2-3 weeks to 6 months or one year can be introduced in the formal system as pre-vocational modules (50-h duration) in IX-X classes in vocational institutions, and the non-governmental organizations/Krishi Vigyan Kendras/Indian Council of Agricultural Research may offer occupation-based modules (2-3 weeks to 6 months). The strategic approach for the development of knowledge system highlighting various issues is also suggested.

Effect of delayed icing on quality changes and shelf-life of some freshwater fish from Bangladesh

The quality and shelf-life of three freshwater fish species of Bangladesh, catla (Catla catla), magur (Clarias batrachus) and tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) stored at room temperature and ice were evaluated. Live fishes were killed by cranial spiking and stored at room temperature (27-30 °C), ice stored immediately after death, 5 hr after death and 10 hr after death. The shelf-life and quality of the fishes were evaluated by organoleptic method, rigor-mortis studies and bacteriological assessment. Fishes kept at room temperature became organoleptically unacceptable within 16-20 hr duration. Ice stored fishes showed considerable differences in their shelf-life when icing was delayed for different duration. Shelf-life of catla ice stored immediately after death was 20 days but shelf-life reduced to 12 days when icing delayed for 10 hr after death. Similar trend was observed for two other fish species magur and tilapia. Rigor-index of the fishes stored under different conditions also considerably varied among the three fish species, particularly effect of delayed icing was very much evident. Bacteriological study showed patterns of Aerobic Plate Count (APC) at the end of shelflife study when fishes became organoleptically unacceptable were more or less similar for all the three fish species stored under different conditions. No definite pattern was observed in the generic distribution of bacteria in different fish species under different storage conditions. Micrococcus, Coryneforms, Pseudomonas and Achromobacter were the dominant groups of bacteria isolated from the fishes spoiled at room temperature and ice stored condition.

Year-round and rotational freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii and paddy farming: soil quality, production and economics

A study was carried out at five upazillas (Dumuria, Fakirhat, Pirojpur sadar, Gopalgonj sadar and Kalia) of five southern districts of Khulna, Bagerhat, Pirojpur, Gopalgonj and Narail to understand the comparative production performance and any effect on soil quality in case of year-round golda (Macrobrachium rosenbergii), alternate prawn-paddy and year-round paddy farming. A direct interview of 55 farmers was taken, using pretested questionnaire, and soil samples were taken from selected farms before and after each crop. Among the five upazillas, farmers in Gopalgonj sadar and Kalia are not practicing year-round golda. Rotational golda-paddy farming has been recorded to result in maximum profit, with the highest of Tk. 310,912/ha/year in 2003 at Dumuria. Only paddy farming is less profitable than other two cropping patterns, irrespective of study sites. The nutrient status of soil in rotational golda and paddy farming has been found improved, compared to that of only golda or paddy farming.

Education and awareness programme on marine protected area management, Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary, Sri Lanka

The objectives of the education programme included: making the fishing community and the younger generation aware of the importance of conserving marine resources; to obtain their suggestions and opinions; and to identify gaps and needs to strengthen local participation.