Fish Diversity in the Southern Coastal Waters of Bangladesh: Present Status, Threats and Conservation Perspectives

Abstract

Despite the enormous anthropogenic and environmental hazards affecting wild fisheries resources, southern coastal waters are still considered one of the aquatic biodiversity hotspots in Bangladesh. Therefore, the present study was conducted to make a complete account of fishes and to assess their condition and conservation status in the rivers spread across four southern coastal districts of Bangladesh. During the study period from January to December 2014, a total of 98 species of fish were recorded belonging to 81 genera, 48 families and 13 orders. Perciforms were recorded as the most diverse fish group in terms of both number and individuals of species observed. Of the 98 species, 26.53% were listed as Locally Threatened in Bangladesh, including 11.22% species listed as Vulnerable, 10.20% as Endangered and 5.10% as Critically Endangered. Four population indices viz, Shannon-Wiener index (H), Simpson's dominance index (D), Simpson's index of diversity (1-D) and Margalef's index (d) were applied to demonstrate the species diversity, richness and evenness of fish in sampling areas and their overall values were 3. 54-3.70, 0.04-0.05, 0.95-0.96 and 7.48-8.67, respectively. To sustain the prospect of fisheries biodiversity in the southern coastal areas of Bangladesh, management and conservation strategies like restocking economically important fish species, establishing and maintaining fish sanctuaries, banning indiscriminate fishing and destructive fishing gears, identification and protection of the breeding and nursery grounds should be taken into consideration with utmost priority.

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

“…The outcomes were found similar in compare with the study of Hossain et al [15] who identified that small fish species were dominant in Meghna River. Galib [34] identified total 67 species having 9837 individuals where Hanif et al [35] listed 65323 individuals under 95 finfish species which were much higher than the present study. Dianne et al [36] recorded a higher number of fish species than the present study which was 137 species from 42 families in the west coast of Western Australia.…”

Length-weight relationships of three catfish species from a tributary of the Dhaleshwari River, Bangladesh

“…The sample size of E. murius represented the majority of the catfish caught during the study, followed by G. viridescens and then N. nangra . The low‐representation of G. viridescens and N. nangra in the catch during the extended study period may be due to the degradation of environmental condition, over‐exploitation, predation, and deterioration of breeding ground and negative impact of comprehensive climate change (Hanif, Siddik, Chaklader, Nahar, & Mahmud, ; Siddik et al., ). The growth coefficient value b normally lies between 2.5 and 3.5 (Carlander, ; Froese, ) and this value of all three species in the present study was within the expected range as well as within the 95% confidence limits of the Bayesian LWR predictions value in Fishbase (Froese & Pauly, ).…”

Length-weight relationships of four fish species from a coastal artisanal fishery, southern Bangladesh

“…In Bangladesh, the southern coastal waters are rich in fisheries, with predominantly brackish water. These waters provide turbid habitats, which provide juvenile fish with abundant food (Hanif, Siddik, Chaklader, Nahar, & Mahmud, ; Siddik, Hanif, Chaklader, Nahar, & Mahmud, ), as well as some refuge from predation (Mandal et al., ). However, in this vast area the LWR data for many species are not recorded in FishBase (Froese & Pauly, ) due to lack of economic importance and commercial value in large‐scale fisheries.…”