Fish assemblages associated with natural and artificial habitats in Palk Bay, southeast coast of India: Comparison using Baited Remote Underwater Video

Photographic evidence of fish assemblage in artificial reef site of Palk Bay - an implication for marine resource management

“…Three fish species, named as Terapon jarbua (Grunter fish), Pomacentrus trilineatus (Three line Damsel fish), and Siganus javus (Rabbit fish) were found more frequently near the artificial substrate used for coral transplantation(Image 1). Similar observations were made as large assemblages of T. jarbua fish were documented on the artificial substrates after three months of deployment (Balaji et al 2019). Among these three fish species, S. javus is commercially important fish species found to be abundant near to the coral transplantation area, whereas T. jarbua is used as fish bait by small scale fishers.…”

“…Therefore, development of artificial reef in a degraded site or selected no reef zone site could improve the abundance of marine bio-resources and provide income generation to the local communities in Palk Bay. Recently, establishment of artificial reef concept was also carried out in Sethubhavachattiram, a fish landing center in northern Palk Bay, India which revealed that artificial reefs provide better sheltering ground for fishes (Balaji et al 2019). However, in the present study, the NCCR team is developing an artificial reef aimed to increase the reef building coral cover in Palk Bay and as well as provide artificial structure to improve the marine resources available especially fishes, molluscs, and echinoderms.…”

Coral Restoration in Palk Bay on the Southeast Coast of India

“…To protect the natural reef from undergoing threats, coral restoration in Palk Bay is necessary to break the barrier of natural recovery and to accelerate the system recovery. In India, branching corals are the preferred option for coral transplantation to alleviate coral reef habitat followed by coral gardening and arti cial reef formation (Yogesh et al 2017; Balaji et al 2019) due to their faster growth rate than other scleractinian species.…”

“…8). Palk Bay serves as an important feeding and breeding ground for many n sh and shell sh; however, many commercially valuable sh species have recently been overexploited in the Palk Bay region, which has signi cantly reduced marine resources (Balaji et al 2019). The present investigation revealed seven different families of sh that were cumulatively assessed at both restoration sites, and the family Terapontidaewas found to be abundant throughout the restoration process (Table 2).…”

“…The present investigation revealed seven different families of sh that were cumulatively assessed at both restoration sites, and the family Terapontidaewas found to be abundant throughout the restoration process (Table 2). T. jarbua is not a commercially important species but is used as bait for shing by the local shing communities (Balaji et al 2019). Assemblages of commercially important shes such as Scaride, Lethrinidae, and Siganidae were abundant after 3 months of restoration (Fig.…”