In a move aimed at keeping a close tab on marine resources and checking their overexploitation, the Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSSB) has embarked on a novel project to map the marine Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESAs) off the 600-km coastline of the State.
A Marine Biodiversity Register documenting the underwater ecology of the territorial waters off the coast of Thiruvananthapuram is getting ready for publication by year end. The pioneering work is an attempt to generate baseline data on marine biodiversity and demarcate ecologically sensitive marine areas. The draft of the register is ready and the KSBB is consulting marine experts for scientific validation and verification of the data.
The MBR is a record of the ecologically important reefs and rocky areas and marine resources like rare fishes, sponges, corals, molluscs, jellyfish, crabs, starfish, seabirds, and sea snakes. It is also a repository of traditional knowledge on navigation, natural reefs, bottom configuration of the seabed, ocean currents, wind patterns, and shore line changes.
The KSBB had joined hands with Protsahan, an NGO working among fishermen, to prepare the document. During the pilot phase, two artificial reefs were deposited in the inshore region off the Kannanthura and Valiathura coasts to replenish dwindling fish stocks. “Depletion of marine resources poses a threat to the livelihood of fishermen communities,” says KSBB chairman Oommen V. Oommen. “The register is expected to provide indicators to overfishing and marine resource depletion and help formulate ecosystem-based fishing management policies.” Significantly, researchers participating in the project recorded nine new species.
“Unlike the People’s Biodiversity Register prepared by panchayat-level biodiversity management committees, the MBR required the expertise of fishermen,” says K.P. Laladhas, Member Secretary, KSBB. Scuba divers were also pressed into service to map the coral reefs and film the flora and fauna. Dr. Laladhas said the project to map the waters off the coast of Kollam and Alappuzha was under way.