.jpeg)
The third day event of WOSC 2024 started with plenary talks from Prof. K. Murali, Dean (Faculty), IIT Chennai and Prof. Sachin Chathurvedi, DG, RIS and the session was chaired by Dr. K.J. Ramesh, former DG, IMD.
Prof. Murali spoke on Navigational Aspects of Hoogly Estuary. During his speech, he mentioned about the sediment transport and management of navigational channels in the estuaries especially the Haldia Dock Complex which is one of the largest funnel shaped estuary in the world where ships navigate in this water body. He also described the challenges encountered and the key areas of focus while carrying out the project. He touched upon the horizontal eddy viscosity and bottom friction coefficient which are important hydrodynamic parameters in the computation of flow fields that dictate the morphodynamics. He also discussed on an interesting topic “Effect of Bio-polymer concentration on the Kinetics of Marine Snow formation” which is an outside coating of the marine organism that interacts with the oil particles, absorbs, and coagulates resulting in marine snow formation.
The second plenary talk was by Prof. Sachin Chathurvedi, DG, RIS on the topic Sustainable utilisation of Oceans: Prospects of Blue Economy. During his talk he spoke about RIO summit, millennium goals and Sustainable Development Goals especially on the SDG‑14 targets which completely focuses and dedicated for oceans. He also touched upon the dimensions in terms of taking the issue forward on the loss in marine life, management in terms of bring in coastal ecosystem. He also touched upon WTO negotiations on the fishing sector, study on ocean science and its governance. He also spoke on Island based tourism, providing access to small scale fishers to marine resources and markets etc., He also emphasised the UN secretary statement that world has achieved only 12% of sustainable development goals and huge path ahead to fulfil our goals. He also touched upon the six pillars of blue economy and the conferences that were held at Mauritius in 2015 followed by Jakarta in 2017. Then he informed about how ocean contributing for GDP. Few other topics covered are sectoral coverage in Agriculture, Marine energy, Marine manufacturing, and Marine services. Challenges in blue economy were highlighted and it is essential to develop national ocean policy by member states, regular framework for estimation of blue economy, to measure the size of blue economy. He also stated that a time has come for district level GDP. Blue economy, unlike GDP also accounts for environmental impact in its calculations.
As part of the concluding event a panel discussion was held and the distinguished panellist were Honourable Minister of State in the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Dr. L. Murugan, Dr. Chaturvedi, Padma Shri Dr. P. S Goel, Padma Shri. Dr. Sailesh Nayak, Dr. Satheesh, Chandra Shenoy and Dr. Atmanand. Many valuable discussions focussing what we have achieved what we need to do for the future in terms of blue economy which, primarily emphasized by honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi Ji. Key points and suggestions were deliberated based out of their rich experience in the blue economy domain.
Honourable Minister of State in the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Dr. L. Murugan spoke about the facets of sustainable blue economy like fisheries, minerals, etc., the focus and priority of the government towards blue economy. He also touched upon the development in fisheries after 2014, the huge investments close to 38000 crore made by the present government in the last 10 years. He also mentioned the co-operation of the fishermen by coming forward to save the source and their concern about the sustainability. He also mentioned that India is the 4th largest exporter of marine products in the world. He also stated that Government is entertaining aquaculture and sea weed cultivation and also has setup a first of its kind sea weed park at Rameswaram. He highlighted the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana – A scheme to bring about ecologically healthy, economically viable, and socially inclusive development of the Fisheries sector of India by the present government.
The panel discussion was followed by valedictory function in which, prizes were distributed to school children who won various competitions conducted as part of WOSC 2024 and prizes were also distributed to presenters for best paper and poster presentations.
The third and the final day of the WOSC 2024 conference had 8 Technical sessions, 43 oral presentation, 34 poster & Flash Presentation and 26 Poster Presentations.
As a summary, the three day conference involved scientific discussions on the focal theme “Sustainable Utilization of Oceans in Blue economy” and 10 sub-themes. Apart from scientific sessions, associated events like Ocean Summit, Fishermen Meet, Early Career Ocean Professionals Meet and Exhibitions were conducted. The conference had a total of 28 technical sessions, 6 plenary talks, and 16 lead talks. The WOSC 2024 conference had a huge gathering of students and professionals totalling a footfall of 1,836 numbers.
The WOSC 2024 conference concluded with vote of thanks and National Anthem.