Port Blair, Nov. 21: The Department of Fisheries celebrated ‘World Fisheries Day-2023’ today in the conference hall of Department of Industries. Smt. Nandini Paliwal, IAS, Commissioner-cum-Secretary (Fisheries) was the chief guest on this occasion. In her address, she emphasized on the schemes and programmes under ‘Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana’ (PMMSY) and sensitized the gathering about the scope of A&N Fisheries potential and its current status of utilization. Considering the potential of Tuna in the Islands, she called up on the entrepreneurs and fishermen to put best effort through Govt. schemes for harvest and export of tuna and tuna like resources. She also highlighted the initiatives taken by A&N Administration to meet the primary input requirement of traditional fishermen community for the harvest, storage and export.
During the programme, awards were presented in various categories like Best Fishermen, Fish Trader, Aquaculturist, Fish Processing Entrepreneur, Fisheries Cooperative Societies etc. in recognition of their contribution for improvement of Fisheries and Aquaculture related activities in A&N Islands during the year 2023. The PMMSY beneficiaries were the major award winners in different categories. In addition, Sagar Mitras, field functionaries and Fisheries Substations were also felicitated for their outstanding performance.
The Commissioner-cum-Secretary (Fisheries) congratulated the winners and expressed her happiness on the participation of the educated youth in Fisheries and Aquaculture activities and their success stories. She called upon the Department to continue its efforts in reaching out to the stakeholders for better acceptance of Govt. schemes and prosperous development of fisheries in the Islands.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Vishwendra, Secretary (Fisheries) gave an outlined the present scenario of fisheries resource distribution, their availability and present production trends for the information of the gathering on the opportunities for future utilization of deep sea resources and economy development of the Islands. He also appreciated the efforts of the Extension Wing of the Department in conducting continuous awareness and training programmes for the benefit of the stakeholders.
Earlier, Shri Anand Vardhan Mishra, Director of Fisheries welcomed the gathering and highlighted the importance of ‘World Fisheries Day’ celebration and responsibility of keeping healthy ocean ecosystems for sustainable growth of the Fisheries sector. A technical session was also organized as part of the programme. Scientists/Officers of ICAR-CIARI, FSI, Port Blair base, ACOSTI-NIOT, Dollygunj and Indian Coast Guard delivered lectures on different aspects of Deep Sea Fishing, Importance of Artificial Reefs in restoration of Coastal Ecosystem, Social Science in development of Aquaculture and sea safety aspects. Apart from Fishers, Fish Farmers and other Entrepreneurs of the Islands, the students from Department of Zoology, JNRM college also attended the programme.
The programme concluded with the vote of thanks proposed by Shri Abdul Salam, Assistant Director of Fisheries.