The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) was established by Government of India on 3 February 1947 under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and later, in 1967, it joined the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) family and emerged as a leading tropical marine fisheries research institute in the world. The Headquarters of the ICAR-CMFRI is located in Kochi, Kerala. Initially the institute focused its research efforts on creating a strong database on marine fisheries sector by developing scientific methodologies for estimating the marine fish landings and effort inputs, taxonomy of marine organisms and the biological aspects of the exploited stocks of finfish and shellfish on which fisheries management were to be based. This focus contributed significantly to development of the marine fisheries sector from a predominantly artisanal, sustenance fishery till the early sixties to that of a complex, multi-gear, multi-species fisheries.One of the major achievements of ICAR-CMFRI is the development and refinement of "Stratified Multistage Random Sampling" Method for estimation of marine fish landings in the country with a coast line of over 8,000 km (5,000 mi) coastline and landing centers. Currently, the institute is maintaining the National Marine Fisheries Data Centre (NMFDC) with over 9 million catch and effort data records of more than 1000 fished species, from all maritime states of India.Presently, the institute has four regional centres located at Mandapam, Visakhapatnam, Mangalore and Vizhinjam and seven regional stations at Mumbai, Chennai, Calicut, Karwar, Tuticorin, Veraval and Digha. Besides, there are also fifteen field centres and 2 KVKs (Ernakulam and Kavaratti, Lakshadweep) under the control of the institute. The nearly five fold increase in marine fish production and the increasing contribution of marine fisheries to the GDP growth are supported by the robust research efforts and its impact on fisher folk, fish farmers, fisheries policy planners and managers.
Early microbial colonization is crucial for immunity and survival in aquatic animals. This study evaluated the impact of egg disinfection on microbial colonization and larval performance in Trachinotus blochii, a high-value mariculture fish. Optimal egg disinfection protocols were initially identified as 20 ppm iodophor for 10 min, 400 ppm H₂O₂ for 10 min, and 40 ppm glutaraldehyde for 5 min to improve hatchability. Sequential analyses included 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of larval microbiota at 10-days post hatching (DPH) and assessment of survival and antioxidant status till 25 DPH. Disinfection significantly enhanced hatchability (up to 90.88 ± 2% with 40 ppm glutaraldehyde), larval survival (up to 34.80 ± 1.1% in glutaraldehyde and 31.18 ± 1.5% in H₂O₂), and catalase activity. Notably, egg disinfection reshaped the larval microbiota, enriching microbial diversity measures and beneficial bacterial taxa, such as Hyphomonadaceae, Halieaceae, Nannocystaceae, and Alteromonadaceae. Improved survival correlated with enhanced taxonomic and functional metagenomic diversity, lower Proteobacteria: Bacteroidota ratio and higher combined proportions of Fusobacteriota, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidota relative to Proteobacteria. The findings suggest that egg disinfection acts as a microbiota programming strategy to promote larval health, offering a practical approach to enhance sustainability in T. blochii aquaculture.
The spatiotemporal distribution and habitat suitability of the Indian squid Uroteuthis (Photololigo) duvaucelii (D’Orbigny, 1835) along the northeastern Arabian Sea (off the coast of Maharashtra State) was investigated. Seasonal shifts in Indian squid abundance revealed three distinct trawl fishing patterns, with post-monsoon fishing in August concentrated between 17°N and 16°N at 20–40 m depth, moving southward in September to 16°N–15°N at 40–60 m depth with higher catch rates, and subsequently becoming more dispersed and extending northward to 17°N–20°N as the season progressed. The factors influencing suitable habitats of Indian squid were assessed using a generalized additive model (GAM). The model results indicates higher probabilities of occurrence of Indian squid to areas of SSHa (Sea Surface Height anomaly) of ± 0.2 to 0.4 m, salinity range between 34.5 to 35 psu, PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) > 40 Einstein m −2 day − 1 , combined with a SST (Sea Surface Temperature) in range of 27.5 to 29.5° C, a current speed of > 0.3 m s − 1 and Chl-a values > 2 mg m − 3 . The model successfully predicts the known areas of high abundance of Indian squid in the northeastern Arabian Sea. Such habitat suitability studies are important for assessing the distribution and abundance of fish resources on a synoptic scale for sustainable fisheries management.
The increasing availability of global and regional reanalysis products emphasises their region-specific evaluation, which helps to provide more accurate and detailed information about ocean processes. This study aims to identify the most suitable reanalysis dataset for wind fields over the North-Western Indian Ocean, thereby limiting the uncertainty related to reanalysis selection. Five reanalysis datasets – JRA3Q, IMDAA, ERA5, MERRA2, and NCEP CFSv2/CFSR - were evaluated using optimal satellite-blended wind data, validated against buoy observations as a reference. Spatially averaged wind speeds from reanalyses were compared with CCMP wind speed across the open ocean and coastal region of the North-Western Indian Ocean over ten years. The comparison employed statistical methods, including correlation, RMSE, MBE, standard deviation, and the NSE skill test.In both the statistical and skill tests regarding climatological wind speeds, ERA5 demonstrates superior performance compared to other reanalyses along most of the regions. However, JRA3Q performs best in the open Arabian Sea among the evaluated reanalyses. Seasonal analysis revealed that during DJFM, all reanalyses underestimate wind speed, with IMDAA showing the lowest bias among the evaluated datasets. While in the JJAS season, ERA5 shows a reasonable consistency. At the same time, directional accuracy with respect to buoys is higher for NBSv2. The study concludes that ERA5 performs reasonably well in accurately representing wind fields over the Northwest Indian Ocean during the JJAS. However, it also highlights that reanalyses encounter difficulties in accurately capturing wind fields during the DJFM season.
The deep-sea shrimp, Aristeus alcocki Ramadan, 1938, is an economically valuable species belonging to the family Aristeidae under the superfamily Penaeoidea. In this study, we report the complete mitochondrial genome of A. alcocki, sequenced using Illumina high-throughput technology. The circular genome spans 15,938 bp and shows a strong A + T bias (64.15
Euryhaline cichlid Etroplus suratensis (Pearl spot), was found to exhibit strong acclimatization efficiency in brackish water (BW, 18 ppt), fresh water (FW, 0 ppt) as well as in sea water (SW, 36 ppt) condition throughout their life cycle. This capability makes it to be considered as a suitable euryhaline teleost model for investigating and understanding the effect of salinity challenges in fishes. Here, we investigated the effect of salinity on the gills of E. suratensis acclimated to different salinity conditions using Suppression Subtractive Hybridization (SSH) and Real Time PCR (qPCR). The Rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) technique was used to obtain complete coding sequences (CDSs) from the selected EST’s obtained through SSH. The findings revealed the increased expression of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) when E. suratensis were exposed to higher salinities. Thus the study highlights the role of IDH in salinity adaptation by contributing to cellular energy homeostasis and enhancing antioxidant defence through ROS scavenging during oxidative stress. The derived complete CDS was used to deduce its amino acid sequences, which were used to construct a phylogenetic tree and protein model to obtain secondary and tertiary structure information of IDH. The present study is the first of its kind in characterising and studying the expression analysis of IDH derived from E. suratensis at varying salinities.
