Fish Community Structure of Sandha River: A Link Analysis towards Fisheries Management and Conservation

Abstract

Sandha River water regime is used as a nursery, feeding and breeding places by commercially important fish species due to the presence of unique environment. Therefore, the present study has been conducted to assess water quality parameters, fish species abundance, fish diversity indices, conservation issues and management policy to guard the valuable aquatic resources of Sandha River from March 2015 to February 2016. Among the water quality parameters, temperature and pH were found at a slight rising level which possessed insignificant negative correlation with fish species abundance (p<0.01). Fish diversity indices were calculated of which the value of Shannon-Wiener Index just above 3 which indicated the river ecosystem still approving good fish community structure where lower value of richness described short food webs. Garretts Ranking Technique was applied to identify the reasons behind the decline of Sandha River fish species over the periods. The study, therefore, concluded that the river has experienced with slight climate modifications and significant anthropogenic activities especially huge fishing pressure which in a feedback reduce the fisheries stock resources with time. Community-based fisheries management (CBFM) hence would be an appropriate tool to make the water resources sustainable.

Diversity of Fish Species in relation to Climatological Fluctuations in a Coastal River of Bangladesh

“…Hanif et al [17] identified a total of 26 endangered species from the Sandha river. Ruma et al [11] performed a bimonthly 1 year research on the fishery resources of the Sandha river and reported 55 species of fish, these results indicating an increase in diversity in the coastal water over the past several years. Actually, as a result of certain recent incentive-based management approaches, the quantity of fish species has grown significantly, and fishermen are capturing many fish [35,36].…”

“…Instead of just counting the number of species within a community, diversity indexes serve as a tool for more accurate information provision. As far as we can tell, only the studies of Hanif et al [17] and Ruma et al [11] have documented fish composition and biodiversity indices in the Sandha river in Bangladesh. However, they did not work on the correlation between fish and their environment.…”

“…The lives of more than 12 million fishermen in Bangladesh are being steadily threatened by the ongoing fall in fish catches despite the country's possession of extraordinarily fertile inland waterways covering around 45,000 km 2 [8][9][10]. As opposed to several other rivers in the coastal region, the Sandha river is one of the significant fish reservoirs in Bangladesh's southern coastal area [11]. The Sandha river plays a significant role in the lives and livelihoods of the local fishermen by offering them a stable supply of food and income for several families.…”

Fish Species Composition, Distribution and Community Structure in Relation to Environmental Variation in a Semi-Arid Mountainous River Basin, Iran

“…Water turbidity and velocity can also impact fish community structure. Water transparency in flu-vial systems is affected by season, rainfall patterns, and water velocity [ 42 ], whereas current velocity is controlled by season, altitude, and morphological structure [ 42 ]. Meteorology and microclimatic drivers also influence hydrology of the study sites in the Karun with depth of water increasing from upstream to downstream sites.…”

“…Our study provides information about the community structure and spatial variation of the fish species in the Karun River basin. Fish species vary in their sensitivity to human intervention, natural calamities and environmental degradation in general [ 42 , 47 – 50 ]. The majority of fish species observed in our study belonged to the Cyprinidae and Leuciscidae families.…”