Rameswaram:Â As part of efforts to replenish natural stock of shrimp and enhance its productivity, CMFRI scientists on Wednesday released 2.75 lakhs hatchery-produced shrimp seeds into sea off Thonithurai in nearby Mandapam.
The PL-30 (45-days-old) seeds of green tiger shrimp “Penaeus semisulcatus” were “sea ranched” by a team of officials, including Dr. R. Jayakumar, Scientist-in-Charge, of the Mandapam Regional Centre of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), a release said here.
Artificial recruitment of aquatic organisms into their natural habitat for stock improvement is known as sea ranching. According to CMFRI, the Mandapam centre is regularly carrying out sea ranching of hatchery produced green tiger shrimp seeds in the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay to replenish the natural stock and to enhance shrimp productivity.
“This will be helpful for conservation and in maintaining a sustainable shrimp stock in the wild and will also improve the livelihood of the fishermen in this region,” the release said. In the last two years, a total of 6.0 million numbers P. semisulcatus shrimp seeds had been released in the region and in the current financial year 2019-20, about 1.75 million shrimp seeds of PL 20-35 size had been “sea ranched” so far, it said.
Besides Jayakumar, Inspector of Fisheries, Tamilnadu Fisheries department, Mariculture scientists and staff of Mandapam Regional Centre, leaders of fishermen associations and local fishermen took part in the sea ranching programme which was coordinated by CMFRI scientists M Sankar and B Johnson, the release added.