ICAR-CMFRI Winterschool on Recent Advances in Fishery Biology Techniques for Biodiversity Evaluation and Conservation

The application of scientific knowledge for the development of the fishing industry lies in an intimate knowledge of the biology of fishes. Without proper knowledge of the life, habits and behaviour of fishes, it would not be possible to plan, control and manage the fisheries resources in a satisfactory manner. The importance of knowledge of the natural history and ecology of organisms affecting the particular fishery cannot be overestimated. Such knowledge is largely the basis for fishery regulation. It also helps in determining the need to improve a given environment and in the required direction. Marine fisheries comprise of capture and management offish and other commercially important organisms found in the seas. Effectively combining fisheries management and biodiversity conservation for both human and ecosystem well being is the central challenge of modern fishery governance. At the global level, the aims of fisheries management and of biodiversity conservation are,respectively, framed by the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC) and the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and related implementation instruments(such as the 1995 United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement, the 1995 Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, and the 1995 Jakarta Mandate on Marine and Coastal Biological Diversity), each with its own sets of requirements. While this field is predominantly of the capture type, culture of certain marine organisms is also possible.In both cases, basic knowledge on the biology of fishes or other organisms of economic importance is necessary. Most conservation efforts are based on scientific management tools, which in turn rely on sound biological data and derivations from the same for farming the management recommendations. A wide array of techniques are used by fishery biologists to study fishes and these biological inputs used are further used to effectively manage the fisheries