Congress bites dust in Udupi dist; BJP sweeps all five constituencies

Udupi, Jan 30: Fishermen in Udupi’s Malpe have netted ‘spanner crab’, a rare variety of deep sea crab, mostly found in Australia and Hawaiian coast.

Hundreds of onlookers were surprised to the see the catch when it was brought to Malpe harbour by the fisherman Prashanth Kunder and others on Tuesday evening.

Dr Shivakumar Haragi, Assistant Professor at Karnatak University, PG Centre Department of Marine Biology, Karwar identified this crab variety as ‘spanner crab’ and the scientific name of this crab is Ranina Ranina.

Ranina Ranina is mainly nocturnal as it remains active during night and is found buried in sand during the day .It is easily distinguished from other crab species in its habitat due to its red carapace and elongated midsection.

Resembling a frog in its shape, this crab species is found mainly in Africa, Hawaiian coast and also in the Great Barrier Reef, located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Its lifetime is seven to nine years and each crab weighs around 400-900 grams.

Prashanth Kunder and his associates have also netted a rare fish variety called yellow-edged lyretail. Another unique variety fish netted by Prashanth is epinephelus flavocaeruleus.

Mangaluru, June 10: The first direct repatriation flight from Damma to Mangaluru International Airport under Vande Bharat Mission will be operated on June 21.

Thousands of people from coastal districts of Karnataka are stranded without flights in different parts of Saudi Arabia after the announcement of covid lockdown in March this year. 

Even though the government of India launched Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indian expatriate through special flights, no flight was scheduled from Saudi Arabia to Mangaluru.

Several organisations had exerted pressure on the government of India and government of Karnataka to bring back stranded Kannadigas from Saudi Arabia.  

With the sole intention of helping the stranded Kannadigas, a few philanthropists in Saudi Arabia last month formed an NGO called Saudi Kannadigas Humanity Forum under the leadership of Zakariya Bajpe and Sheikh Expertise.