My research interests include the development of hatchery technology for induced breeding and seed production of brackishwater finfish species such as seabass, milkfish, pearlspot, brey mullet, cobia and ornamentals such as spotted scat and silver moony. Live feed production and its application for fish larviculture is also my interest. I have 25 years of experience in fish breeding, seed production, nursery rearing and grow out culture. Presently, I am working to popularise farming technologies for seabass, milkfish and pearlspot in brackishwater ponds and cages. I am keen to establish satellite fish seed rearing centres in different states to supply the seed locally with the participation of farmers and state government officials. I provide hands on training programmes in brackishwater fish seed production and culture.
My research interests include fish genetics and breeding, population genetics and fish biotechnology aspects for improvement of brackishwater finfish and shellfish. I have experience in genetic charactersation of shrimp stocks inhabiting the Indian coast. I have notable achievements in shrimp genomics such as building SNP marker-based linkage maps and conducting genome-wide association studies. In recent years, I gained expertise in aquaculture bioinformatics tools and have been involved in conducting differential gene expression studies and building complete genomes of bacteria, virus and shrimp utilising NGS datasets.
My research interests include the reproductive biology, endocrinology and captive breeding of brackishwater fish. I have nine years research experience in brackishwater breeding of brackishwater fishes in captivity and their farming in different costal states of India, with hands-on experience in fish hatchery design and operation. I have demonstrated the hatchery operation and farming of different brackishwater fishes such as Asian seabass, milkfish, pearl spot and brackishwater catfish to small and marginal farmers. I am experienced in the establishment and operation of recirculating aquaculture systems for broodstock development and farming of fish and shrimp. I also have experience in the farming of crab and shrimp in box and pond systems, respectively.
I joined the scientific service in 2008 and have since worked on diverse areas of aquatic microbiology and aquatic diseases. This has included understanding the virulence of bacterial pathogens, quorum sensing, and bacterial toxins. Presently, I am seeking to understand the lytic and lysogenic phages of aquatic origin and their role in controlling luminescent vibriosis in shrimp hatcheries. I have worked on pond microbial ecosystems and their manipulation using biofloc and periphyton-based systems. I have more than 30 publications in peer reviewed journals and serve as reviewer for journals including Aquaculture, Aquaculture Research and Aquaculture International.
My research interests include aquatic animal health epidemiology, disease diagnostics and shrimp larval pathology. Since the early years of my career I have been interested in epidemiological studies on diseases and biostatistics. Presently I am working on active aquatic animal disease surveillance, with special reference to hepatopancreatic microsporidiasis, caused by Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei on the south east coast of India.
My research interests are pragmatic extension approaches that are better fit for sustainable coastal aquaculture. These include: Collective compliance of good aquaculture practices by small scale farmers through social capital development, public-private partnership for effective aquaculture extension services, application of ICT and mobile phone based solutions for extension service delivery and real-time interaction with end users, climate smart aquaculture and alternative livelihood models for coastal fishers through customised cages in open brackishwaters. I have twenty years’ of research and extension experience in coastal aquaculture. I have worked with NACA on two programmes viz. collective efforts of small scale farmers in aquaculture and the aqua-climate initiative. We have developed and launched "vanamei shrimp app", a mobile application for providing real-time solutions to small scale farmers.
