IV to National Institute of Oceanography

IV to National Institute of Oceanography

The students of third year Electronics and Communication Department visited the CSIR-National Institute of oceanography under the supervision of Mr. Sathyan and Mrs. Vijitha Khan. on 3rd March 2023

National Institute of Oceanography was founded on 1st January 1966 with the mission of understanding the seas around us and translate this knowledge to benefit all. NIO carries out oceanographic research on four areas including Geology, Climatology, Biotechnology and Archeology. NIO operates 2 ships all over the Indian ocean region particularly out exclusive economic zone that measures over 2 million square kilometres in area. These ships carry out regular observation on physical process ,biological resources non living resources as well as natural and human impacts on climate change and their effects on marine ecosystems and biochemistry of seas around us. Climate related studies and pollution monitoring is performed using an autonomous underwater named ‘Maya’ and an autonomous vertical profiler. There is huge potential for marine biotechnological applications on which NIO has been focusing in the past 10yrs isolating thousands of antimicrobial compounds and testing them. There’s a great deal of potential for finding the new compounds for commercial and medical applications. In the arena of marine biotechnology ,NIO’s efforts of identification selection and harnessing of microbial resources for environmental and industrial biotechnological prospecting is substantial. One of the major goal of NIO is sustainable utilization of the oceanic resources by a good understanding of its processes. NIO also focuses on the impact of ballast water being released by ships from one place to another thereby transporting organisms from one ecosystems to another and from one geographical area to another. These are alien species and have deleterious impact on that environment. NIO has had a major project on prospecting for marine minerals called polymetallic nodules which are deep sea minerals that occur on the sea floor on the open ocean. NIO is also conducting studies to predict the potential environmental impact of mining these minerals. Lately NIO has also been working on gas hydrates which are a potential source of energy. Another area that NIO has been working on is marine archaeology. We observed the archeological findings of the lost port city of Dwarka under the sea there. Due to the science that this institute has carried out, NIO is globally recognized as one of the top Oceanographic laboratories in the world. After going through their fascinating collection of exhibits, we headed back.