Launching Of the Deep Sea Survey Programme On “Assessment of Marine Mammal Population of the Indian EEZ”

India has exported 41,564 MT of wild caught marine products to USA in 2019-20 worth Rs.2,298.09 Cr (USD 329.73 million).   USA has come out with a new regulatory programme under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which shall come into force by January 2023. 

As per the provisions of MMPA, the exporting countries must develop an appropriate regulatory programme comparable in effectiveness to the USA for reducing marine mammal by-catch and shall submit comparability findings before the deadline of 01st November 2021.  Sensing the urgency of the situation and its serious impact on our seafood trade with USA, MPEDA has entrusted CMFRI for initiating the study on the “Assessment of marine mammals stock and by-catch of marine mammals and sea turtles”.  The stock of marine mammals will be estimated based on the Visual Surveys – By the way of estimation of marine mammals abundance through explanatory cruises & Line Transect sampling and Acoustic surveys – By the way of passive acoustic monitoring along the Line Transect survey using towed hydrophone array. 

MPEDA-CMFRI-FSI launched the deep sea survey programme on 22nd February 2021 by using the FSI MFV Lavanika at FSI-MED Jetty, Ernakulam.  Shri K.S.Srinivas, IAS Chairman, MPEDA flagged off the sailing along with other dignitaries Dr. A Gopalakrishnan, Director, CMFRI, Dr. L Ramalingam, Director General, FSI. 

This marine mammal survey would facilitate conservation and protection of marine mammals, uninterrupted export of the seafood and enhancing the livelihood of Indian fishers.