Conference Papers (FP)

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Browsing Conference Papers (FP) by Author "Anandan, R."

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    Myctophids: An alternate protein source from deep sea
    (Society of Fisheries Technologists (India), 2012) Mahato, P.K.; Baby, L.; Sankar, T.V.; Anandan, R.; Vijayan, P.K.; Ninan, G.; Zynudheen, A.A.
    Dietary deficiency of protein and consequent malnutrition is a significant problem especially in developing countries. Many of the vegetable protein lack certain essential amino acids, unless supplemented from other sources. Animal protein is superior in this respect but is comparatively expensive. It is in this context, fish and other marine products have great significance as a source of high quality protein which is at the same time less expensive. But in present scenario major fisheries of the world are either overexploited or getting exhausted to a point of no return which poses a serious threat to the future of our food security in terms of protein requirement. As efforts are already being made to revive the world fish catch, it is time to start looking for other untapped resources from the oceans. One such promising potential resource is Myctophids. Myctophids are commonly known as Lantern fishes falling under the Order Myctophiformes and belonging to the family Myctophidae which comprise of 235 species in 32 genera (Nelson, 1994). They are found in all oceans from the Arctic to the Antarctic and live at depths up to 1200 m. Some species make daily migrations up to 10 to 100 m. Most of the lanternfishes measure 6.5 to 10 cm in length. They have large eyes and bear photophores. They feed on small prawns, copepods and other crustaceans and have a low fecundity, with the females producing about 100-2000 buoyant, pelagic eggs of size 0.7-0.9 mm (Balu and Menon, 2006). Myctophids are not of much commercial importance so far. Most of the post harvest activities are restricted to the laboratory trials with some exception in fish meal and oil production, which is carried out on commercial level.