The first such expedition was held from 1960-65, wherein 20 countries had sent in 40 ships. The expedition was a result of formation of National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) on January 1, 1966.
Addressing media persons on Thursday, Director of NIO Dr S W A Naqvi said that the second Indian Ocean Expedition will be held in the first week of December with at least 20 counties joining. The expedition will continue
till 2020.
Speaking in the presence of Union Science and Technology Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Dr Naqvi said that there has been tremendous change in the ocean in the past 50 years. He said that the expedition will follow the international symposium on Indian Ocean which will be held in November-December this year.
“India being a dominant power in ocean research, the world is looking at us with hope. There are many countries in the region that don’t have the infrastructure and human resources to carry out research on their own, and hence they look to India,” Dr Naqvi said. When the first expedition occurred, it was the largest international collaboration ever, as in the 1960s we knew nothing about the ocean. So the efforts were to get a larger picture.
“At that point of time oceanography in India was at a nascent stage. Fifty years have passed since the last expedition and lot of things have happened in the Indian Ocean,” he said.
“There has been climate change. Also there are systemic changes that are happening in the ocean. The oceans are becoming warmer, they are losing oxygen, and they are becoming more acidic. We are going to look into effects that have occurred in the last 50 years,” Dr Naqvi stated.
The second expedition will include countries such as the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, South Africa and regional countries including India which will participate in the expedition with their own resources.
At the same time, NIO is also set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar to further pursue Ocean research, giving them rights to conduct research in one another’s Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs).
“It is for the first time in the history of the institute that we will be able to get into those parts of the ocean where we never got into, for our studies. We will be in a better position to explore the oceans and its effects along the Indian coast,” Dr Naqvi said.
