OCEANOGRAPHICAL AND FISHERIES RESEARCH IN INDIA 299 



for Sardines which led to the productioij of sardine oil becoming an 

 important industry. Owing to the inadequacy of staff, lack of sufficient 

 funds to carry out investigations with thoroughness, and the position of 

 Fisheries as a Provincial Subject creating administrative problems when 

 a fishery extends to two or more states, these efforts often lacked' 

 continuity. The first decision to tackle the marine fisheries investigation 

 on an All-India basis was taken by the Government of India with the 

 starting of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Station in 1947. 



Central Marine Fisheries Station 



This Central Institute was started in February 1947 for handling 

 marine fisheries research on an All-India basis with temporary head- 

 quarters in the Biological Laboratories of Madras University until the 

 permanent headquarters at Mandapam were ready for occupation. 

 Buildings originally put up as a Naval Hospital by the Defense Depart- 

 ment during World War II were converted into laboratories and tem- 

 porary residential accommodation for the staff. Subsequently an aqua- 

 rium was built with facilities for keeping organisms alive in circulating 

 sea water and fittings to the laboratories were carried out. In addition 

 to the headquarters station, there is a subsidiary research station at 

 Kozhikode to deal with the special fisheries problems of the West Coast 

 of India, and research units at Karwar in the Bombay State to deal with 

 the mackerel fishery, at Narakkal in Travancore-Cochin to deal with the 

 prawn fisheries and prawn farming operations, at Madras for handling 

 studies on edible Mollusca and at Bombay for carrying out investiga- 

 tions on off-shore fisheries. In order to collect fishery data from the 

 long coast-line of India, fishery survey assistants have been posted at 

 twelve centres representative of the various divisions of the Indian 

 coast-line extending from Kathiawar to West Bengal. The data gathered 

 are analysed and computed at Headquarters, setting up for the first time 

 a machinery for the collection of All-India marine fishery statistics. 



Programmes of Marine Fisheries Research 



The work of the institution is broadly divided into four categories. 

 Fishery Survey, Fishery Biology, Marine Biology and General Physiol- 

 ogy. Fishery Survey aims at assessing the marine fishery resources by 

 computing fish landings and biological composition of catches to see 

 if the marine fisheries in general are under- or over-utilized. Scientific 

 study of exploratory work of the deep sea fishing vessels forms an essen- 

 tial part of the survey programme. The studies relating to Fishery 

 Biology deal with the fish stocks, special habits, distribution, life-histo- 

 ries and such aspects of fish life as have intimate bearing on fisheries 



