National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT):

Established in 1993

Status: An autonomous society under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India.

Administration: NIOT is managed by a Governing Council and the Director is the head of the Institute.

Mandate: To develop reliable indigenous technologies to solve the various engineering problems associated with harvesting of non-living and living resources in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which is about two-thirds of the land area of India.

Headquarters: Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Mission:

Samudrayaan Mission:

A part of the Deep Ocean Mission.

Announced by: the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) in tandem with ISRO’s Gaganyaan mission.

Aim: To develop a self-propelled manned submersible to carry 3 human beings to a water depth of 6000 meters in the ocean with a suite of scientific sensors and tools for deep ocean exploration.

Timeline: 5 years for the period 2020-2021 to 2025-2026.

Deep Ocean Mission:

• By the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES)
• It seeks to investigate the deep ocean for resources, develop deep-sea technology for long-term ocean resource management, and support the Indian government’s Blue Economy Initiatives.

Ocean institutes:

National Institute of Oceanography, goa

• Founded on 1 January 1966

• One of 38 constituent laboratories of the CSIR.
• It is headquartered in Goa and has regional offices in Kochi, Mumbai, and Vizag.
• Is a self-governing research organisation in India that conducts scientific research and studies on the unique oceanographic features of the Northern Indian Ocean.

National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR):

• The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, (NCPOR) formerly known as the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) is an Indian research and development institution, situated in Vasco da Gama, Goa.
• It is an autonomous institution of the Department of Ocean Development (DOD), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India.
• Storing ice core samples, from Antarctica and the Himalayas.

Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS):

Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is an autonomous organization of the Government of India, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, located in Pragathi Nagar, Hyderabad.

INCOIS was established as an autonomous body in 2007 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and is a unit of the Earth System Science Organization (ESSO).

Services Provided by INCOIS:

• Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ): The identification of Potential Fishing Zones was one of the first advisory services started by INCOIS.
• Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS): Following the devastating Tsunami of December 26, 2004, and frequent storm-surgest that occur from time to time, the Government of India wanted to set up an early warning centre for tsunami and other storm surges in the Indian Ocean region.
• To provide ocean data, information and advisory services to society, industry, the government and the scientific community through sustained ocean observations and constant improvements through systematic and focused research in information management and ocean modelling.

Missions:

Deep Ocean Mission:

• The Government of India has decided to launch the Deep Ocean Mission – DOM, with an aim to explore the marine diversity in our country, which is still unexplored.
• This ambitious project will be managed by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
• The technological developments done for the Deep Ocean Mission will be funded by the Government scheme “Ocean Services, Technology, Observations, Resources Modelling and Science (O-SMART)”
• Study and research on the climatic changes in the Ocean and other advisory services will be done through this mission.
• Submersible Vehicle, which can explore upto 6000 metres in depth.
• Development of technologies for deep sea mining, underwater vehicles and underwater robotics.
• Development of ocean climate change advisory services.
• Technological innovations for exploration and conservation of deepsea biodiversity.
• Deep ocean survey and exploration.
• Proof of concept studies on energy and freshwater from the ocean; and
• Establishing advanced marine station for ocean biology.

Polymetallic Nodules Programme:

• They contain Rare Earth Elements and metals which are important to high-tech industries.
• The amount of copper contained in the CCZ nodules is estimated to be about 20% of that held in global land-based reserves.
• These Rare earth minerals are considered as the great source of valuable minerals such as gold, silver and zinc.
• India had signed a 15 year contract for exploration of Polymetallic Nodules in CIOB with the International Seabed Authority in 2002.
• India is implementing a long–term programme on exploration and utilization of Polymetallic Nodules (Polymetallic Nodules programme) through Ministry of Earth Sciences.
• India is presently having an area of 75,000 square km, located about 1600 km away from her southern tip. Polymetallic nodules resource potential in this site is 380 million tonnes.
• It is envisaged that 10% of recovery of that large reserve can meet the energy requirement of India for the next 100 years.

Harmful algal blooms:

• An algal bloom can be defined as a rapid increase in the population of algae in an aquatic ecosystem.”
• Algal blooms can be found in either a marine environment or a freshwater environment. It usually occurs due to the introduction of a nutrient (such as nitrogen or phosphorus) into an aquatic ecosystem. Algae is a term that is used to describe both unicellular and multicellular, photosynthetic organisms.
• These 5,000 species, 2% of the phytoplankton species are known to be toxic.
• For example, red tides caused by Gaunyolax is a HAB.
• HABs are also responsible for mass die-offs, where a large population of species dies after consumption of the toxic algae.