Category FAQs Search : Marine Biodiversity
Question: Marine Biodiversity of India – Status and Challenges
Answer: Diversity in the species complex, typical of tropical waters and co-existence of different fish and shellfish species in the same
ground are important features of Indian Marine Biodiversity. Past studies on the biological and fishery characteristics
of the important groups shown that most of the species supporting the fishery are short lived with an average life span up to 3-5 years,
but the fishery being mainly supported by under an year olds and one year old. They are highly fecund and spawn over longer periods mostly with fractional spawning and show wide annual variation in recommitment. Several issues in the captive fisheries sector adversely affect
the marine biodiversity of the country especially in the fish as ecosystem good to human beings. The issues such as limitations of growth and production in the inshore fishing grounds, less profitability and economic returns due to increased cost of fishing operations, management problems in the context of common property multigear, multispecies nature of fisheries. The above issues brought about by the uncontrolled fishing effort put into the fishery without any regard to stock-production-recruitment relationship. Besides these the ecological problem created by increasing pollution of coastal waters by release of untreated effluents and pollutants by agro industrial complexes operating in the
coastal zone. It has been observed that the sediment in certain waters contains high levels of Copper, Zinc and Lead. The
mercury content in some of the marine organisms at certain places has been found to be higher than the normal which may alter the genetic makeup of species. The fly ash deposits from thermal plants at certain places are on the increase and it changes the bottom topography of the affected area and chances of species depletion and replacement. To address these issues a thorough knowledge about different marine
ecosystems like mangrove ecosystems, coral reef ecosystem, estuarine ecosystem, coastal marine ecosystem, lagoon, systems, coastal ecosystems and marine protected areas of India is prerequisite.
(Source: , 17 Sep 2021)
Source Link: http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/10406/1/01_KK_JOSHI_2.pdf