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| Established | 1998 |
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| Focus | Marine living resources |
| Owner | Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India |
| Location | |
| Website | www |
TheCentre for Marine Living Resources & Ecology (CMLRE) is aresearch institute inKochi,Kerala under theMinistry of Earth Sciences,Government of India with a mandate to study the marine living resources.[1] Today, apart from implementing various research projects of theministry, the institute also manages and operates theFishery Oceanographic Research Vessel (FORV)Sagar Sampada.[2]
The institute has its origins in theSagar Sampada cell, which was established under the then Department of Ocean Development, DOD (upgraded to theMinistry of Earth Sciences in 2006) for managing and co-ordinating activities ofFORV Sagar Sampada. During the beginning of the 9thFive Year Plan of theGovernment of India in 1998, the Marine Living Resources Programme (MLR Programme) was formulated by the DOD with a view of promoting ocean development activities in the country which inter-alia include mapping of the living resources, preparing inventory of commercially exploitable living marine resources, their optimum utilization throughecosystem management and R & D in basic sciences on Marine Living Resources & Ecology. With the objective of implementing this programme, theSagar Sampada cell was upgraded to the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology. To this date, the research vesselSagar Sampada serves as the backbone of the MLR research activities co-ordinated by CMLRE.
During the 9thfive-year plan (1998-2002), the Centre co-ordinated the first systematic study ofmarine life along theIndianshelf waters, along the eastern and western coasts of India. The environmental characteristics of this region and thephytoplankton,zooplankton, marinebenthos,fishery resources etc. of this region were systematically characterized for the first time. During the 10thfive-year plan (2002-2007) the exploration was extended to thecontinental slope regions, particularly in the case of marinebenthos andfisheries. Research thrust was also placed on studies ofharmful algal blooms andmarine mammals around the Indian subcontinent. The environmental and productivity patterns around the IndianEEZ continued to be monitored and research on the productivity andfishery resources of theAndaman and Nicobar regions was also carried out. In January 2005, after the devastating2004 tsunami the institute along withNational Institute of Oceanography and School of Marine Sciences,Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kochi carried out one of the first scientific studies regarding the impact of the tsunami on marine life.[3][4] In the 9th and 10thplan periods, the CMLRE served chiefly as a co-ordinating and fund granting agency, managing the projects that were granted to various other research institutes and universities.
During the 11thfive-year plan (2007-2012), the CMLRE established in-house R&D activities, apart from co-ordination of projects in other institutes. In this period, focus was placed on continued monitoring of thepelagic environment and productivity, marinebenthos,harmful algal blooms, studies on reproduction and recruitment ofsardines in the south-eastArabian Sea, deep-seafisheries andmyctophid resources in the Indian EEZ. Several projects during this period also focused on isolating and identifyingbioactive compounds from marine organisms.
The Centre has the following mandate
Institutes associated with the MLR research programme through fund-granting from CMLRE (past and present) include
