06-bioresourcesstatu.. - M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation

Gulf of Kachchh
Kachchh. Ninety-one species of Pelecypods
belonging to 27 families have been described from
the Gulf of Kachchh \\ith a note on their relative
abundance (Kundu, 1965). Moses (1938) has
reported that there were 10 rich beds of the
windowpane oysters between Balapur Bay and
Pindara Bay of Gulf of Kachchh. Economic
significance of the windowpane oyster fisheries
along the gulf coast has been re-assessed by
Verghese (1976). Gokhale et at. (1954) have
reported growth rate of pearl oyster Pinctada
pinctada in the Gulf of Kachchh. Various aspects
. of the pearl fisheries in Gulf of Kachchh have been
described by Eswaran et at. (1969).
During the ICMAM data collection in February-
March 1999 along coastal regions of the Gulf total
group observed varied from 5 to 10. The groups
were polychaetes, amphipods, decapods, molluscs,
echinoderms, crustaceans, gorgonians, corals and
bryozoans.
c. Corals:
Genetic diversity of the scleractinian corals
occurring around the Poshitra point and the niche
differentiation of various reef-building corals have
been studies by Patel (1978).Various possibilities of
establishing coral based industries in Gujarat and
their potential to generate employment were
discussed by Patel & Bhaskaran (1978).
Satellite imageries indicated that the total reef
area in the Gulf was 217 km' in 1975, which
decreased to 118 km'in 1985 and 123 km' in 1986
with net loss of 94 km' or 43% of the coral cover.
The satellite pictures show that the reefs that are
interpreted as having died out between 1975 and
1985 in fact lie buried under mud, proving
conclusively that the important, if not the only,
cause for coral damage is the heavy silt load
(Bahuguna & Nayak, 1998; Bahuguna et at., 1998).
Satellite imageries also clearly showed that the
core area of the MNP coral reefs, which covered
116km'in 1975,was reduced to 83 kID'in 1982 and
53 km' in 1985. The Remote Sensing data
supported by ground truth data collection
revealed that between 1985 and 1991 a net
improvement (from 53 to 85 km') in coral cover
within the core area of the MNP has taken place
(Bahuguna & Nayak, 1998). This happened mainly
because of the imposition of the ban on coral sand
extraction by the cement factory at Sikka. The
reefs are generally restricted to areas exposed to
the strong tidal currents and live corals are
generally confined to the northern and western
10
sides of the islands. The diversity of coral species
is the lowest of all Indian reefs. A total of 44
species of Scleractinian corals (stony corals) and
12 species of soft corals were reported in 1988
(Pillai & Patel, 1988). The monograph on Biological
Diversity of Gujarat listed 40 species and 23
genera of stony corals, 3 species of soft corals and
4 sea fans from the Gulf (Pilo et at., 1986). Most of
these corals are hermatypes (reef forming) while
only a few are ahermatypes.
The subtidal observations, underwater
photography and videography shows that live
corals - both soft and hard, are abundantly
present in the sub-tidal regions of the reefs at
various stages of growth. The genera Favia,
Favites, Goniopora, Montipora, Turbinaria and
the broken branches of Acropora. The soft corals
genera are Dendronephythya and Nephthya.
Stony corals dominate most of the reef area.
d. Fisheries :
Gujarat tops the list of the 9 littoral states of India
in marine fish production accounting for 23.1% of
the National total. In 1997-98 the State exported
17.9%of its marine catch, which was 32.5% of the
National export. Value-wise Gujarat earned 13.6%
(Rs. 637.85 crores) of the Country's marine
products export earning (Rs. 4,697.48 crores)
(Fisheries Statistics, 2000).
The Gulf of Kachchh and Arabian sea areas of
Kachchh district supports a good fishery of
commercially important species. The coastal
centres along the Arabian Sea and the Kori Creek
had a fish landing of 50,193 tons which was
around 70% of the catch for Kachchh district
during 1997~98.The three districts bordering the
Gulf together landed 1,28,653tons during the same
year, which was 18.3% of the State total 7,02,355
tons. It can be obvious from the above that the Gulf
proper accounts for 60% of total landings from the
northern waters of Gujarat (Fisheries Statistics,
2000). It is not clear what is the actual fish
production from the Gulf, as the landings consist of
even catches from outside the Gulf.
It has been stated earlier that the state has
reached the maximum sustainable yield (MSY)for
fishing in the coastal belt upto a water depth of 75
meters (Fisheries Statistics, 2000). The present
trend indicates an intensification of fishing, which
may, eventually, lead to overfishing of the stock.
Fish with less commercial value, like Bombay
Duck, Ribbon fish, small Sciaenids and
miscellaneous fish, constituted over 70% of the