In a major attempt to boost seafood exports from India, the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute will provide technical backstopping for strengthening the sustainable harvest of 11 selected shrimp and cephalopod trawl fishery resources of Kerala, following a request from the Seafood Exporters Association of India).

The institute will carry out a consultancy research project aimed at assessing the stock health and fishery performance of kiddi (karikadi) shrimp, flower tail (poovalan) shrimp, red ring deep sea shrimp, nylon shrimp, deep sea non-penaid shrimp, squid, cuttlefish, octopus, ribbon fish and two species of threadfin breams.

An MoU in this regard was signed by A Gopalakrishnan, Director of CMFRI, and A J Tharakan of the SEAI.

Sustainable fisheries

The consultancy project aims to achieve a slew of objectives, including setting fisheries management target levels for these species, reporting on the incidental occurrence of sawfish, guitarfish and juvenile sharks in the trawl fishery of Kerala and providing indicative management actions.

“With seafood consumers globally shifting towards making informed, healthy and sustainable choices, it becomes critical that seafood originates from sustainable fisheries”, Gopalakrishnan, CMFRI Director said. Improved management programmes would enable the marine fisheries sector to gain increased access to seafood markets worldwide.

The project will focus on the application of appropriate models tailored to the life-history patterns of the selected species and the strengthening of the existing database on the by-catch.

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