Scientists gather at Andaman for session on island fisheries

Port Blair, Jun 21 (UNI) Scientists from across the country today gathered at Port Blair, the capital city of Andaman and Nicobar for a two-day long session on ''Development of Island Fisheries.'' Inaugurating the session, Development Commissioner of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Tapan Mandal said situated in the Bay of Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands possessed nearly one-third of Exclusive Economic Zone(EEZ) of India but still the abundant sea resources around these islands remained largely unexploited.

''Inputs given today by Research and Development(R&D) is tomorrow's reality and this is the reason why R &D is so important for us,'' he said.

Speaking on the occassion, Dr S Ayyapan, DDG(Fisheries) ICAR, New Delhi, said India could not afford such luxury of keeping the vast EEZ unexploited.

''We are not diversifying our marine products and most of our fishing techniques are traditional,'' Dr Ayyapan said.

''A session like this would go a long way for the development of fisheries in Andaman and Nicobar Islands where only a fraction of marine wealth is being explored.Instead of leasing out our sea to countries like Russia and USA we must think of exploiting resources ourselves,'' he said.

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