Zooplankton samples collected during International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE) 1960-65 are by far the largest and the most important collections from the Indian Ocean in the world today. Though several experts spent decades to study various groups of zooplankton, these valuable data have not been computerized to make permanent records. Hence a database for IIOE zooplankton is initiated as a cooperative project of CMarZ and a part of the IIOE data have been digitized.

During IIOE 1548 standard zooplankton samples were collected covering the entire Indian Ocean. The database is prepared based on published information on these zooplankton samples. Three sets of Tables are made: (1) Basic data on zooplankton volume, total population and all the 54 taxa found in the collections. (2) Data emerged from subsorting of copepods, decapods and fish larvae (3) Species level data for chaetognaths for entire Indian Ocean and ostracods for northern Indian Ocean.' (from summary of CMarZ Cooperative Project final report)

An enormous amount of data emerged through IIOE collections (25 °N to 45°S latitude and 30 to 120°E longitude) had been digitized to make permanent records of the zooplankton of the Indian Ocean (Nair, 2005). The proposed baseline biodiversity assessment of CMarZ has a critical application for ocean research to provide a benchmark against which future comparisons can be made. The first step towards this endeavour would be to digitize the recorded species from different sectors of the world oceans along with their biogeography. This project aims to bring out inventories for the known species of major groups of zooplankton of the Indian Ocean. This information can be incorporated into CMarZ species page, an endeavour to enhance capacity in zooplankton taxonomic analyses.

Although technically retired, Vijaya Nair remains the contact for anyone seeking information about these data.

Contact information:
Vijayalakshmi R. Nair
HB/50, Vijaya
South Bridge Avenue, Panampilly Nagar
Kochi 682036, Kerala, India
(telephone/fax) 00-91-484-2316999
vijayalakshmi40@hotmail.com