At the occasion of the 108th Indian Science Congress at Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), a dialogue on ‘Sustainable Fisheries, Aquaculture and Climate Change ’ was organised on January 5, 2023. The dialogue was chaired by Dr. Basant Kumar Das, Director, ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CIFRI), Kolkata.
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In the seminar, Dr. Uttam Kumar, Director, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), presented a research paper on ‘Impact of Climate Change on Inland Open Water and Aquatic Genetic Resources.’ The paper discussed how due to disruptive factors like floods, hurricanes, an increasing outbreak of different diseases, parasites and algal blooms and other ill effects of climate change, the stock of fish and production infrastructure is getting destroyed. He also spoke on how this leads to damage to biodiversity, the risk to hereditary resources, reproduction failures, reduced availability of seed stocks and altered distribution of species.
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Dr. JK Jena, Deputy Director, Central Domestic Fisheries Research Institute, presented his research paper on ‘Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture: Impact of Climate Change and Mitigation Measures’. His presentation pointed to a constant change in marine and terrestrial environments due to the rise in temperatures. Changes that affect fisheries and aquaculture include droughts, hurricanes, floods, salinity levels, rainfall variations and rise in sea levels. Different changes that happen in aquatic community structures have an impact on the availability, abundance and distribution of fish, he said.
During the programme at Indian Science Congress, Dr. Basant Kumar Das also presented his research titled “Domestic Fisheries and Aquaculture for Sustainable Development Goals and Women Empowerment.”
