Report of the one day workshop on Responsible Fishing ICAR-CIFT, Willington Island, Cochin

The workshop was on the theme Responsible Fishery, organised by ICAR-CIFT Cochin. Ten students from the department of Aquaculture and Fisheries  namely Amanda Tom, Sneha R Pai, Roselin Sandra Harshel, Shreya S. Pillai, Sreelakshmi C.S, Lekshmi S. of final year UG and Namitha Paul, June Mary Josy, Anagha Biju and Devika P.S. of second year UG participated. The talks mainly focused on marine sector. The workshop began at 10:30 sharp. Dr.LEELA EDWIN, Head and Principal Scientist, Fishing Technology division, CAR-CIFT addressed the gathering. The workshop consisted of three sessions in which the first was on ā€˜Responsible use of energy in fishingā€™. The talk was by Dr.Leela Edwin and mainly focused on the energy utilization by different fishing gears in the marine sector. The session was very informative and stated the arrival of a new synthetic material namely Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Fibre. The topic of this talk was familiar as the students had good knowledge about the fishing methods and fishing gears.

The second session was on ā€˜Juvenile Fishing: Implications and Mitigation measuresā€™. The talk was by Dr.MADHU V.R, Principal Scientist, Fishing Technology division, CIFT. This lecture emphasized on bycatch, its importance and some other information related to bycatch. The main part was the Mitigation measures. The students came to know about the semi-pelagic trawl developed by CIFT, which is different from the normal ones in such a way that it operates 50m above the seabed without disturbing the benthic biota. The main specialty of this trawl is that it has more of a vertical opening with extra lateral panels and non-traditional otter boards and will obtain more catch than the conventional shrimp trawl.

The third session was on ā€˜Ghost Fishingā€™ by Dr.SALY  N THOMAS, Principal Scientist, Fishing Technology Division, CIFT. This lecture mainly focused on Marine pollution and the presence of  microplastics in aquatic organisms along with the dangers of lost or abandoned fishing gears in the ocean.

The lectures concluded with an interactive session where the students could clear their doubts.

In the afternoon session, the quiz competition began at 2:00pm and Dr.M.P. RAMESAN, Principal Scientist, Fishing Division, CIFT was the Quiz Master. Two students representing the department, Shreya S. Pillai and Roselin Sandra participated. The competition consisted of four teams consisting of two students each. Other participating students were from CIFT-NET, MES Collage Trissur, St.Alberts Collage and KUFOS Panangad. The winning team was CIFT-NET followed by MES Collage in the second place, KUFOS in the third and St.Alberts collage in the fourth place.

The last session was the Plenary Session. The Director of CIFT-Dr.RAVISHANKAR C.N. spoke on the occasion. The workshop was very informative. The students got to know a lot more than what textbooks alone can teach. The students also came to know about latest developments of ICAR-CIFT Cochin such as the Solar Boat and the Semi pelagic Trawl.

The workshop concluded by 4:00pm.

2017-’18

Vembanad Fish Count

MSC AFA students participated in the Vembanad Fish count organized by the ATREE Allapuzha chapter on May 2017.Our former HOD Dr. Benno Pereira was the Coordinator of the group.

River Valley Protection

The Department of Fisheries & Aquaculture students participated in a River protection workshop and rally conducted by Rally for Rivers, Isha Foundation by Miss. Meera.Ā 

2016-’17

Sea Club

It was inaugurated on 27 Nov.2014 by Dr.Sunil Kumar Mohammed of CMFRI, sponsored by MPEDA and NETFISH. NETFISH (Network for Fish Quality Management and Sustainable Fishing) is a registered society formed under theĀ Ā  Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) with a view to imparting knowledge to fishermen/ fisherwomen/ processing workers, technicians, etc. in fish quality management, conservation of fish resources as well as sustainable fishing. SEACLUB started in the college and collaborated with the NETFISH in their awareness programmes conducted in different fish landing centres. As a part of the awareness programme the Department students conducted street play and cultural programmes in Cochin, Vypin and Munampam harbours and also conducted poster competition and painting competitions among students onĀ  5th June 2016.

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Street play by sea club members

Posters and Painting competitions by sea club members.