Identifying different species of fish is now just a scan away. Yes, the same kind of a scan that you see in a retail shopping plaza where every item is bar-coded and the vendor uses a laser scanner and tells you the price, manufacture date and other important information about the product.

Lucknow-based National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (NBFGR), in association with Canada-based international consortium FISH BOL is currently undertaking a bar-coding programme that will identify the DNA sequence of every fish species found in India. Once completed, the database will help in instant identification of different fish species.

“DNA sequences of barcodes of 300 out of over 2,200 Indian fish species have already been made and registered in our database,” said Dr W S Lakra, Director, NBFGR. A hand-held device that at present is being prepared by FISH- BOL will read these DNA sequences, which are unique to each fish. “We have learnt that the hand-held device will be made available in the market in next three years,” said Lakra.

Since the NBFGR is a DNA barcoding centre for the entire South Asia region, it is working with scientists of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Mauritius and other countries.