T'puram: The project to deposit fish seeds by installing artificial reefs to promote sustainable fishing and better livelihoods along the coastal region will be inaugurated on Wednesday at Vizhinjam North Harbor by Union minister of state for fisheries, George Kurian.
The event, presided over by fisheries minister Saji Cherian, will be attended by MP Shashi Tharoor, mayor Arya Rajendran, principal secretary of fisheries and ports department K S Srinivas, fisheries director Abdul Nasser B, and other people's representatives.
The central and state govts aim to establish artificial reefs along the coastal waters of nine marine districts. In the first phase, a total of 6,300 artificial reefs were deployed across 42 locations in the coastal waters of Thiruvananthapuram district. For this, the central and state govts provided a total funding of Rs 13.02 crore in a 60:40 ratio.
The central govt, through NFDB, also approved Rs 3 cr for the sea ranching plan, which involves depositing fish seeds to ensure increased fish availability and to benefit traditional fishermen in the district. Fish seeds such as pompano and cobia are being deposited at a rate of one lakh per reef, totalling 10 lakh fish seeds across 10 designated artificial reef sites. Fish juveniles weighing between 8 to 10gm are being deposited as part of the project. TNN