Essay on the Growth of Oceanography in India (1854 Words)

Essay on the Growth of Oceanography in India!

The ecology of Indian seas and oceans is comparatively most extensively worked out than any other ecological discipline. The knowledge of the oceanography of Indian seas has been mainly acquired from the observations of expedition by the following ships:

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Challenger (1872-1876), Gazelle (1874-1876), Investigator (1884- 1925), Vitiaz (1886-1909), Egeria (1894), Valdivia (1898-1899), Gauss (1901-1903), Discovery I (1901-1904), Sea Lark (1905), Planet (1906-1907), Aurora (1911-1912), Dana I (1921-1922), Dana II (1935), Snellius (1929-1930), Discovery II (1929-1931), Mahabis (1933-1938), Albatross (1947-1948), Vema (1953), etc.

During International Geographical year (IGY) programme following research ships have added to our ecological knowledge: Vitiaz (1957- 1960), Michael Lomonosov (1957-1960), Severyanka (1958), Chain (1958-1960), Argo (1959-1960), Woelkof (1959), Shokalski, (1960), etc. During years 1960-1964, an International Indian Ocean Ex­pedition (IIOE) was arranged to study the Indian oceans.

In this expedition 20 countries including India participated with 38 re­search vessels and a big team of scientists. India participated in this field programme of expedition from September 1962 to Decem­ber 1965.

The vessels INS Kistna, R. V. Varuna. R. V. Conch and F. V. Bangada were used for making detailed observations on several aspects of physical, chemical and biological oceanography as well as the fisheries, meterology, marine geology and geophysics.

On the conclusion of the Indian programme of IIOE, the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) was set up in January, 1966 as one of the national laboratories under the control of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). NIO took over all the activities and centres of the Indian Ocean Expedition in India and it organized them into different divisions of oceano­graphy. After being temporarily located at New Delhi, NIO shif­ted its head quarter to Dona Paula (Goa) on July 15, 1969.

NIO and its regional centres at Bombay and Cochin consist of following seven divisions: (i) The Indian Ocean Biological Centre at Cochin; (ii) Physical Oceanography; (iii) Chemical Oceano­graphy; (iv) Geological Oceanography; (v) Biological Oceano­graphy; (vi) Data and Documentation; and (vii) Oceanographic Instrumentation, Two more regional centres of NIO are going to be established at Waltair and Calcutta. Different centres of oceanographical research of India are tabulated as follows;

Table 31. Different centres of oceanographically research of India:

Institute/Organization:

1. The Indian Meteorological Department, New Delhi.
2. Regional Telecommunication Station, New Delhi (a part of the Global Telecommunication System of world weather watch programme).
3. The Survey of India, Dehra Dun.
4. The Naval Hydrographic Office, Dehra Dun.
5. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Poona.
6. The Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, Bombay:
(a) The Health Physics Division.
(b) Radioactive Waste Treatment Division.
7. The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay.
8. The Institute of Sciences, Bombay.
9. Taraporevala aquarium and Marine Biological Research Station, Bombay.
10 The Naval Chemical and Metallurgical Laboratory, Bombay.
11. The Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, Cochin.
12. The Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad.
13. Directorate of Fisheries, Government of Gujarat, Ahmedabad.
14. The Agricultural University, Bangalore (Mangalore Unit).
15- University of Kerala, Department of Marine Biology and Fisheries, Trivandrum with branch laboratories.
16. Department of Marine Sciences, Cochin University, ErnaKulam, Cochin.
17. Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Cochin and Mandapam (with 15 substations and units).
18. Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin.
19. Government of India Deep Sea Fishing Station, Bombay (with substations at Cochin, Veraval, Tuticorin and Visakhapatnam).
20. Indo-Norwegian Project, Ernakulum.
21. The Central Salt and Marine Chemical Research Institute, Bhavnagar.
22. Andhra University, Waltaire.
23. Marine Biological Station, Annamalia University, Porto Novo.
24. University of Madras, Madras.
25. Madras State Department of fisheries (with the Marine Biological Station at West Hill, Ennur and Krusadi).

Activities:

1. Collection of marine meteorological and sea surface temperature data.
2. Exchange of meteorological and some oceanographic data.
3. Operation and maintenance tide gauges, determination of various tidal datum plane and evaluation of monthly and annual sea le variations at different minor a major ports.
4. Preparation of bathymetric charts of the seas around India and the approaches to various harbours.
5. Provides facilities for marine meteorological research.
6. Conducts circulation studies ii the near shore waters off Bombay.
7. Carries out geochemical studies pertaining to heavy metals and radioisotopes in the seas and sediments.
8. Carries out research on the biological oceanography and marine resources of the Arabian seas.
9. -do-
10. Carries oceanographic research under Research and Development Organization of the Ministry of Defence.
11. -do-
12. Carries research in oceanography from space in collaboration with National Institute of oceanography and other Institutes.
13. Carries out research on the biological oceanography and marine resources of the Arabian sea.
14. —do—
15. —do—
16. —do—
17. Carries out investigations on marine fisheries, general marine biological surveys along the entire Indian sea board, Indian marine fisheries statistical survey and acts as the centre for fisheries data.
18. Conducts research on fish processing and craft and gear technology.
19. Carries out exploratory fishing and offers training in offshore fishing.
20. Exploratory fishing.
21. Studies recovery of important chemicals from the sea water, conversion of sea water into fresh water using solar evaporation methods and research on marine algae and agar production.
22. Carries out research on the biological oceanography and marine resources of Bay of Bengal.
23. —do—
24. —do—
25. —do—

Growth of different aspects of Indian oceanography can be studied separately as follows:

1. Bal et al (1946) accounted preliminary physical and chemical factors of water of Bombay Harbour during 1944-1945. Chidambaram and Rajendran (1951) collected hydro biological data on Wedge Bank early in 1949. Jayaraman (1952, 1954, and 1965) studied chemical oceanography of sea of Bay of Bengal, Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay near Mandapam.

Lafond (1952) worked on the marine meterology and its relation to organic production in South-East Asian waters. Later on, Lafond (1954, 1957) made certain oceanographic studies in the Bay of Bengal. Ramamurthy (1953) made hydro biological studies of the Madras coastal waters. Ramasastry and Balramamurthy (1957) discovered thermal field and oceanic circulation along the east coast of India.

Jayaraman and Gogate (1957) studied variation in salinity and temperature in the surface waters of Arabian Sea off the Bombay and Saurashtra coast. Ramasastry and Myrland (1959) recorded the distribution of temperature, salinity and density in the Arabian Sea along the south Malabar Coast.

Jayaraman et al, (1960) studied hydro-graphy of the Laccadivies offshore water. Remainrithan and Jayaraman (1960) worked on the hydrographic features of the con-tinental shelf waters off Cochin during the years 1958 and 1959.

Panikkar and Jayaraman (1966) recorded the biological and oceanographic differences between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Mahadevan and Nayar (1968) studied general topography and ecology of the rocky bottom in the Gulf of Mannar off Tuticorin.

2. Deep sea fauna (benthos) of Indian water is mainly known from the expedition-work of Investigator (1884-1925). A lcock (1902) have described the bottom fauna of Indian seas. Hornell (1902-1922) worked extensively for the establishment and development of pearl-fisheries in the Gulf of Mannar and in Kathiawar, Gujrat.

Graveley (1927) studied the littoral fauna of Krusadi islands in the Gulf of Mannar Bapat (1951, 1970) made different ecological observations on Bombay duck, Harpodon nehereus. Panikkar and Prasad (1952) investigated the phenomenon of commensalism in ophiuroid fish, crab, and jelly-fish, Rhopalima.

Daniel (1954) studied seasonal variations and the succession of fouling communities in the Madias Harbour. Jones (1960) studied ecological relationship between scyphomedusa Acromitus flagellatus and young Seleroides leptolepis.

Sukumaran and Krishnaswamy (1961) studied the ecological effect of salinity changes on the gastropd mollusc Seliana radiata. Sokolova and Pasternak (1962) investigated the benthic fauna in the tropical part of Indian Ocean to be richer than that of tropical Pacific Ocean.

Sita (1963) reported helminth parasites from Madras coast. Krishnamoorthy (1963) recorded the distribution of certain species of polychaetes in Adyar estuaiy, Madras. Nayar and Mahadevan (1965) recorded the inter specific population interactions between a fish and a sea snake and sea anemones and fishes in the Gulf of Mannar.

Jones and Mahadevan (1965) studied ecological relationship in between pea- crab Pinnotherus deccaneusis living inside respiratory tree of sea cucumber Holothuria scabar. Govindankutfy and Nair (1966) made preliminary observations on the interstitial fauna of south west coast of India. Reddiah (1970) studied ecology of reefs of Appa Island in the Gulf of Mannar.

3.The ecology of marine phytoplanktons was worked out by many workers such as Hornell and Nayudu (1924), Menon (1931), Chidambaram and Menon (1945), Gonzalves (1947), Chacko (1950), Ganapati (1953, 1955), George (1953). Ramamurthy (1953), Prasad (1956), Subrahmanyan and Sharma (1960), etc.

Nair and Subrahmanyan (1955) observed a close relationship bet­ween abundance of oil sardine, Sardinella longiceps and the diatom Fragilaria oceanic which occurs in the Arabian Sea, during the south-west monsoon. The blooming of this diatom is thus found to act as ecological indicator for the abundance of oil sardines.

Primary production of marine environment have been estimated by various workers, such as Ryther and Menzel (1965), Ryther et al., (1966), Qasim and coworkers (1958-1973), Ramachandran (1970), Nair (1970), Dehadrai and Bhaigava (1972), Gopinathan (1974, 1976) and so on.

Seshappa and Jayaraman (1956, 1957) studied interactions between sea bottom muds and nutrient cycles (phosphorus cycle) in tropical seas and their influence on the primary production.

Reddy and Sankaranarayanam (1968) studied the distribution of phosphates and silicates in the Central, Western and North Indian oceans. Rao and Jayaraman (1969) investigated the occurrence of oxygen maxima and minima in North Western Indian ocean.

4. Ganapathy and associates (1954-1962) worked on the ecology of marine planktons, plank tonic copepods and chaetognatha of Visakhapatnam coast Certain workers such as Bhimachar and George (1950), Prasad (1953), Prasad and Jayaraman (1954), Subrahmanyan (1954, 1959), and Panikkar (1967) reported popula­tion explosion of certain zooplanktons such as Noctiluca miliaris on one occasion and green Noctiluca, Hornellia marina, Tricho- desmia, etc., at other occasions.

They observed that outburst of Noctiluca was correlated with scarcity of other living organisms in the Indian seas. Subrahmanyan (1959) made detailed studies of Zooplanktons off Calicut coast and also studied inter-relationship between phytoplankton’s and zooplanktons.

Ramamurthy et al., (1963) studied ecology of planktons at Kandla in the Gulf of Kutch. In 1965, Ramamurthy made observations on the ecology of plank­tons of North Canara Coast in relation to the pelagic fishery. Prasad (1968, 1969) published maps of the total zooplankton bio- mass of the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, in the International Indian Ocean Expedition Plankton Atlas.

He also studied the distribution pattern and productivity of zooplanktons of different zones. Pillai (1968) made observations on the planktons off Bombay coast and also remarked on the hydrographic condi­tions and fisheries at this coast.

Qasim (1970) observed the ecolo­gical reasons of Trichodesmium bloom in the Laccadives and deep sea. Qasim and coworkers (1972) worked extensively on the feeding ecology of many marine fishes and determined their status in mar e food chains.