17 species of se recorded at Marine Park

As many as 17 species of sea slugs were reported and recorded for the first time in India during a recent study by a team of scientists led by Dr Deepak Apte from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) at five different locations in the Marine National Park, Jamnagar.

A total of 45 species of sea slugs — soft-bodied marine creature — were recorded. Of these, 35 were being recorded for the first time in Gujarat. “The new findings have added to the richness of marine biodiversity in this park. A total of 45 species belonging to 35 genera and 18 families of opisthobranchias were encountered during the survey conducted during 2009-10,” said R D Kamboj, Chief Conservator of Forests, Marine National Park.

The highest species richness was found at Poshitra; with 24 species whereas Narara recorded 14, Dwarka and Okha recorded nine and 10 respectively and the goose reef recorded six species of opisthobranchs.

These soft-bodied mollusks belong to the order opisthobranch of phylum mollusk of the animal kingdom. These are highly evolved gastropods having a single gill behind the heart and one pair each of oral tentacle and rhinophores. The members of this order include sea slugs, sacoglossans, sea hares and nudibranchs. They maybe herbivores, carnivores or omnivorous.

According to Dr. Apte, many more species can be recorded if a consortium of scientists works on the project. “It is important to record these species because often we don’t even know what we have lost,” he said.

Scientists say that these mollusks are highly sensitive to slltation due to dredging of ocean floors to construct jetties, ports and ship traffic in the marine ecosystem. Small confined populations like that of sakuraeolis gujaratica, an endemic species to Poshitra region, Gulf of Kutch, can even face extinction due to loss of Habitat.

“This is only a rapid assessment. Once the full surveys are done, species count is likely to increase manifold. Poshitra bay is also home to several rare species such as facelina lineata, lomanotus vermiformis and cuthona yamasui. Another species sakuracolis gujaratica is endemic to Gulf of Kutch and found only in Poshitra, There are only two known existing sites for this species at Okha and Poshitra,” Kamboj said.

During the study, scientists found that in view of the rich marine biodiversky of corals and molluscs in Poshitra bay, this area needs to be insulated against various degradation factors, particularly industrial and port development activities, which may spell doom for the last remaining good quality of corals and other rare marine fauna in Gulf of Kutch.

The Marine National Park in ,Jamnagar is spread over 161 sq km area and has major species like sponges, corals, jelly fish, sea horse, octopus, oyster, pearl oyster, starfish, lobster, dolphin, dugon and waterfowl among others.

Courtesy:- Times Of India, Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011.