Incois' tuna gill tagging to explore their habitat

An ear-stud for the fish. That is what the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (Incois) is up to. The aim is to know about the creature's aquatic life and sharing it with the beneficiaries.

The Hyderabad-based organisation seeks to use the fish tag, named PSAT (pop-up satellite archival tag data), to track the gill-bearing animal's movements with the help of GPS and satellite facilities in order to learn more about their habitat and prepare a database for the fishermen community.

The modest-looking gadget was displayed at the Incois stall at the World Oceanic Science Congress (WOSC) here.

Presently, the tag is tailor-made for the tuna. It is attached to the gill of the fish after it is netted. Weighing only 40 grams and measuring 12 inches in length and equipped with antenna, the instrument poses no complexity.

The PSAT will trace the paths of fish over a three-month period, plumb its depths and gauge the temperatures. After 90 days, the tag would on itself free from the gill and reach the surface of the sea, from where it would transmit information via satellite to the Incois monitoring system.

According to Rose P Bright, an assistant with the pioneering project, said the related research was progressing well, and he said, "As of now, the tool has been attached to 12 fish in the water zones off Goa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Four of them have delivered results," she said. One tuna fish that was tagged with PSAT at Chennai is recorded to have swum around entire island of Sri Lanka. It is learned to have travelled in temperatures ranging 20-27 degree celsius, seldom going deeper than a standard level.

Given the tuna moves with the aim of finding its feeds, its travel path also throws light on other varieties of fish and their habitat. The study is important also considering the tuna data in Indian Ocean remains far less studied compared to that on their existence in the Atlantic and Pacific.

Incois has decided to probe more on the tuna, considering this variety has high export value even as the fishermen are generally less keen on chasing it, said Bright.

"The mission is to study more about tuna by using PSAT and reach out the information to the fishing community," she added.

The Incois stall here also exhibited the tsunami buoy that has the capacity to warn major seismic sea waves having a huge destructive potential.