FISH DIVERSITY OF SUBARNAREKHA ESTUARY IN RELATION TO SALINITY
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Authors
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AMITABHA GHOSH
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UTPAL BHAUMIK
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B. B. SATPATHY
Abstract
The river Subarnarekha, about 460 km in length, originates in the Chotanagpur plateau near Ranchi, traverses through the states of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa before meeting the Bay of Bengal about 1.5 km downstream of Kirtania / Chaumukha. Located in the state of Orissa, the entire estuarine stretch, about 50 km in length from Jaleswar to sea face, constitutes around 10% of the total length of the river. Based on the primary observations on the salinity regime and extent of tide, the Subarnarekha estuary was divided into three zones, viz., (i) Kirtania-Ramnagar (ii) upstream of Ramnagar to Dahamunda and (iii) upstream of Dahamunda to Jaleswar. Information on the piscine fauna of the estuary appears to be scanty. With this in view, a benchmark survey covering the period between April, 2008 and October, 2009 was conducted to evaluate the fish diversity of the Subarnarekha estuary. During the present course of investigations 140 species of fishes belonging to 18 orders and 55 families could be recorded of which estuarine / marine species contributed around 59.29% (excluding species found both in estuarine and transitional zone) and those migrating upstream even to freshwater zone. Perciformes constituted more than 45% of the total fish species recorded.
Key words: Subarnarekha estuary, fish diversity
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