It was with the commissioning of the Fisheries and Oceanographic Research Vessel FORV Sagar Sampada in 1985 that the exploration of Marine Living Resources of the vast EEZ of India beyond the conventional fishing zones lying within the 50 m depth contour began in earnest. In the last 25 years of its service, the vessel completed 275 cruises in the Indian Ocean, occupied around 7500 stations for multidisciplinary sampling and undertook one cruise to the Southern Ocean, down to 60°S. During these cruises, a large number of biological samples, including those from trawling in deep seas, have been collected and analyzed. Along with these, data on physical and chemical properties have also been collected, thus enabling a better understanding of the oceanographic features that govern the abundance and dynamics of marine living resources. As a result, our knowledge base of the marine living resources and the ecosystems they inhabit in the offshore and oceanic regions of the Indian Ocean has increased considerably. Two workshops, one in 1989 and another in 1996, organized to discuss the findings from FORV Sagar Sampada, were huge successes: 63 papers were presented in the first one and 60, in the second.
To commemorate the dedicated service of FORV Sagar Sampada in the national efforts on assessment of Marine Living Resources and consolidate the knowledge gained since 1996, the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE), Ministry of Earth Sciences proposes to hold a 2-day National symposium on Marine Living Resources of Indian Ocean in December 2010 at Kochi.

Each session will have an invited keynote lecture and oral presentations of original research findings. In addition, there shall also be a provision for poster presentations. We encourage contributions based on analyses of the oceanographic and biological data from cruises of FORV Sagar Sampada and also those that will advance our understanding of the Marine Living Resources of India at a national and global perspective.
Original contributions are invited for oral presentations in the 4 sessions. As the contributions will be published in a reputed journal (Journal of Marine Systems, IF>2)), the submissions will be screened and those articles that have been accepted for presentation will undergo a review process before being communicated to the journal. It is also being planned to bring out a Symposium Proceedings for most of the presentations.
Interested people may register on-line. Please also inform and encourage your colleagues and friends from your organization to register on-line and help the symposium to be a grant success.