Sea ranching carried out to enhance shrimp productivity

The sea ranching of hatchery-produced green tiger shrimp, Penaeus semisulcatus seeds, is being carried out at regular intervals in the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay. It would be helpful for conservation and also in maintaining a sustainable shrimp stock in the wild. Moreover, it would also help improve the livelihood of the fishermen in this region. During the last two years (2017-19), a total of 7.025 million P. semisulcatus shrimp seeds of ‘PL 10-35’ were released in this coastal region.

During the current financial year (2019-20), a total of about 2.025 million shrimp seeds of ‘PL 20-35’ size were sea-ranched so far. A total of 1.2 million shrimp seeds of PL-15 (27-day-old) were sea- ranched at Thonithurai, Mandapam, the sources added.

The Director ICAR-CMFRI, A. Gopalakrishnan, from Kochi, Kerala, was the Chief Guest of the sea-ranching programme. The shrimp seeds were released in the presence of the members of the Institute Management Committee ICAR-CMFRI K. Muraleedharan,  K. A; Saira Banu, former Commissioner of Fisheries, Kerala; P Muralidharan, Principal Scientist and Head, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, CPCRI, Kayamkulam, Kerala; K. Raghunadhan, Administrative Officer, ICAR-CMFRI, Kochi; R. Jayakumar, Scientist (in-charge); V. Prabhavathi, Deputy Director of Fisheries (Regional), Ramanathapuram, and others.