The Hindu Business Line : Team to study impact on marine resources

A SCIENTIFIC team with 12 members from various Central Government agencies and universities has embarked on a 15-day voyage along the eastern and western coasts of the country to assess the impact of the tsunami .

A scientific research vessel called Sagar Sampada left Kochi on Wednesday with a team of scientists and researchers from the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE) of the Department of Ocean Development, National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), and the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Andhra University and Annamalai University.

Co-ordinated and facilitated by the CMLRE, the expedition is considered to be the first scientific study on marine resources on the impact of the tsunami attack in India, official sources said.

The researchers would undertake studies to examine the impact of the tsunami on the sea bottom and its resources and hydrographic characters of the sea, including dissolved oxygen content, turbidity, salinity and nutrients.

The samples will be collected off Kozhikode, Kochi, Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram and Cape Comorin in the west coast.

The expedition will cover Nagapattinam, Kadaloor, Chennai, Krishnapattinam and Kavali in the east coast.

The researchers collect benthic organisms, sediment samples and check hydrographic parameters at these stations so as to compare with the data generated from the DOD-funded earlier study on benthic community and shelf water along the Exclusive Economic Zone of the country.

Scientists would collect samples from the ocean floor from a depth ranging from 30 metres to 200 metres to assess the possible quantitative and qualitative impact of the tsunami attack on the sea bottom and living organisms in or close to it.

The NIO scientists would be focusing on collecting data from near-shore areas separately, with hired boats as the Sagar Sampada cannot pass through shallow waters.

In its earlier study, the vessel had conducted two cruises each along the eastern and western coasts between 1998 and 2001 as part of the first systematic study along the Indian shelf waters.

The data generated from the earlier cruises would be treated as the benchmark data to assess the impact of the tsunami on the sea bottom and the living resources there, the officials said.

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