WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • MARCH 2013 7 In Memoriam Dr. M.C. Nandeesha, Special Officer, Vice-Chancellor designate, Tamil Nadu Fisheries University, and Chairman of the Asian Fisheries Society Indian Branch and AFS Council Member, passed away on 27 December 2012 after suffering a heart attack and a month-long struggle for life in the critical care unit of Apollo Hospital, Chennai. He was an extraordinary man with a vision and a mission. When I think of him, I recall the words of Pierre de Coubertin: “The most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.” He lived a life fighting for what he believed is right and just. Nandeesha was born on 1 July 1957 in Mudanakude, a village near Mysore, Karnataka, into a rural farming family. After spending his early education in the village, he joined the College of Fisheries, Mangalore in 1976 to pursue professional fisheries education. He graduated in 1980 with a B.F.S., earned his M.S. in Fisheries in 1982, and then joined the Agriculture College, Dharwad, as a research assistant in fisheries. He moved over to the College of Fisheries, Mangalore as Assistant Professor in 1985. During 1987-1992 he carried out off-campus research on fish nutrition and earned a Ph.D. from Visva-Bharati University, Santhiniketan, West Bengal. From 1992 to 1997, he served as Fisheries Adviser for PADEK in Cambodia. In 1997, he returned to Mangalore and was appointed Associate Professor. He joined LIFE under CARE in Bangladesh in 1998 and served as Research and Dissemination Adviser until 2000 when he was elevated to Project Coordinator in GOLDA under CARE in Bangladesh. In 2001 he joined the College of Fisheries, Central Agricultural University, Tripura as Professor of Aquaculture. In 2010, he was selected as Dean of the Fisheries College and Research Institute at Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu and subsequently in March 2012 as Special Officer of the newly formed Tamil Nadu Fisheries University, Nagapattinam. During his tenure as Dean, he initiated international partnership research programs with three universities in the USA, two in Europe and three in Asia, in addition to facilitating many exchange visits. He also organized an expert consultation on fisheries education in India in 2011 by bringing together representatives of all fisheries colleges in India on a single platform to interact with 20 international experts. This consultation identified the M.C. Nandeesha (1957-2012) challenges facing fisheries education in the country and developed a detailed plan that was submitted to the Government of India for incorporation into the Twelfth Plan. Another output was the concept of providing support for the development of experiential learning programs in the fisheries sector which was accepted by the ICAR by including two fisheries modules. In November 2012 he was selected as the first Vice-Chancellor of this newly formed university, a position he could not take up because he was hospitalized and did not recover. During a career spanning more than 29 years, his contributions as a development researcher and innovative aquaculture development worker through numerous honorary positions earned him much appreciation and reputation. He served two terms as Secretary of the Indian Branch of the Asian Fisheries Society, worked in various capacities for the FAO, CARITAS, JICA, World Bank, NACA, CARE, IDRC, PADEK, NOVIB, and CIDSE in many south east Asian countries. At the time of his untimely death, he was serving as Chairman of the Indian Branch of Asian Fisheries Society, Council Member of AFS, Team Member of Global Initiative for Life and Leadership through Aquaculture (GILLS), Chair of Aquaculture without Frontiers, and Member of the Oversight Committee of Best Aquaculture Practices of the Global Aquaculture Alliance. The most sustaining contribution Nandeesha made was establishing the Indian Branch of the Asian Fisheries Society along with Prof. H.P.C. Shetty in 1986. The First Indian Fisheries Forum was held in Mangalore in 1987 and since then I have been actively involved with him in establishing the AFSIB on strong footing. His pioneering work in field testing Ovaprim in India under various agro-climatic conditions opened up new vistas in freshwater fish breeding in India. His significant scientific contributions include simplified breeding technology for cyprinids, development of feeds and feeding techniques appropriate to rural aquaculture, development of small-scale aquaculture and fish seed production techniques appropriate to Cambodia and its potential in poverty alleviation, farmer participatory research as a tool to improve fish productivity in rural Bangladesh, demonstration of the benefits of rice-fish farming in eliminating the use of pesticides, development of prophylaxis and treatment procedures for the control of EUS (CONTINUED ON PAGE 8)
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