|
India hosts SAFARI symposium on remote sensing and fisheries
Some 250 participants from 39 countries attended an international symposium organized in India from 15 to 17 February by the SAFARI Initiative (Societal Applications in Fisheries and Aquaculture using Remotely-sensed Imagery). Funded by the Canadian Space Agency, the SAFARI Initiative falls under GEO Task AG-06-02. This Task calls for consultations at the international level to identify opportunities for enhancing the use of Earth observation data in fisheries and aquaculture.
The symposium was hosted in the city of Cochin by India’s Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) in association with Society of Fisheries Technologists of India. It addressed a broad range of issues, including the operational use of remote sensing for fish harvesting and aquaculture, food security and sustainability, oceanic pollution monitoring, oceanic satellite data processing technology, and the implications of climate change.
Remote observations of the sea surface could provide a significant part of the information needed to assess and improve the potential yield of the world’s fishing grounds. However, with fisheries in decline worldwide, fish populations must be carefully monitored in order to accurately estimate their abundance. This information is vital for achieving sustainable fisheries management, protecting the marine environment, strengthening integrated coastal management, and gaining a fuller understanding of the structure, functions and vulnerability of oceanic fishery ecosystems.
In his inaugural address, Dr Shailesh Nayak, Secretary of India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences, stated that an integrated ocean observing system that can provide sustained and systematic observation of, and information on, the world oceans is the need of the hour. Collecting such data would clearly require large investments in satellites, research vessels, moored buoys and autonomous vehicles for observing and sampling the water column.
The lead for the GEO Task, Dr Trevor Platt, said that India has been a pioneer in the application of earth observation data for the benefit of fisheries. Noting that there is a global shortage of trained personnel in this field, he informed participants that the Symposium had been preceded by a three-day training program in which around 60 participants from South Asia, South America and Africa had participated. The training program documents are available here.
|
