Marine debris conference from April 11

KOCHI: Environmental activists, marine scientists, policymakers, technocrats and oceanographers from across the country will converge at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) for two days for the national conference on marine debris (COMAD) which begins on Wednesday. The conference will come up with a roadmap to protect the coastal and marine ecosystem.

Organised by the Marine Biological Association of India, COMAD will focus on analysing the threats of marine litter to the ocean ecosystem and finding ways to resolve the issue.Experts and activists will engage in brainstorming sessions on aspects like micro plastics in marine bodies, ghost fishing nets, impacts of resources owing to litter, impacts on livelihood and others. Success stories of practical models to control the marine and estuarine litter will be presented by environmental campaigners in areas such as solid waste management, plastic recycling, bio-medical waste management and green village initiatives.  

Afroz Shah, an environmental activist from Mumbai who was awarded the UN’s highest environmental honour ‘Champions of the Earth’, will inaugurate the conference at 10 am. Shah became a popular figure in 2016 after he led an army of 12,000 volunteers to collect 4,000 tonnes of trash from the 2.5-km stretch of Versova Beach in Mumbai.As many as 50 scientific papers on the threat of marine debris in different perspectives will be presented by national experts.