Proceedings Of The Symposium On Coastal Aquaculture

Fisheries play an important role in the economy of nations bordering the sea and this is especially true in a populous country like India where a large majority continues to live below the poverty line. Sea fishing has been an occupation with the coastal people of India since time immemorial forming an integral part of the maritime heritage. Machanisation has been introduced into the marine fishing with a view to exploit the fisheries potential all along the Indian coastline of 6,500 km by overcoming the deficiencies of the centuries old traditional fishing technology and to augment fish production with a higher fishing effort and also to raise the income levels and living standards of fishermen. The present book, based on the author’s doctoral dissertation, made a bold and pioneering attempt to evaluate the costs and earnings of mechanised and traditional boats for determining their relative operational efficiency and to examine intensively the effects of mechanisation on employment, income levels, consumption pattern and levels of living of fishermen and their social implications. While analysing the merits of the new fishing technology and also the reactions of different groups of fishermen to mechanisation, he spotlights the shortsightedness in the implementation of the programme of mechanisation resulting in a host of negative effects which have implications and also sets forth the valuable lessons which Indian experiences have to offer to the densely populated littoral nations in the Third World. To ensure enduring benefits to the vast majority of marine fishermen, the thesis underscores, among numerous other remedies the need for the provision of an intermediary technology, the need for the institutional support and marketing network and the need for the management of fisheries resources. It also calls for the policies to bring about socio-economic development of the fishing community on par with the rest of the society. All in all, a genuine contribution to knowledge of `grassroots' situations that will have enduring value and that can be useful in both academic and policy-formation circles.

Marine fouling organisms attach permanently to ship hulls and underwater parts of offshore structures. All maritime nations spend millions, even billions of dollars to get rid of them. Believing that a pooling of knowledge of all aspects of the basic biology of fouling organisms and a re-examination of control technology methods are steps needed for the solution of this problem, the aim of the book is to highlight recent advances in fouling control technology and, at the same time, provide basic information on the biology of fouling organisms found in the Indian Ocean. The book begins by presenting an overview of research done in India on the marine fouling organisms and wood-borers of the Indian Ocean. It them moves through chapters dealing with the seccession of fouling communities, chemical cues in larval settlement, epibiosis, methods of fouling prevention, functional morphology, and distribution of foulers in Indian waters.

Contributed articles.