An Assessment of Faunal Diversity and its Conservation in Shipwrecks in Indian Seas

Abstract India has some of the richest marine biodiversity in the world and occupies an area of 329 million hectares, with 8118 km coastline and 468,000 km 2 of continental shelf areas. There are four major coral reef areas in India: along the coast of the Gulf of Mannar, the Gulf of Kachchh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Lakshadweep Islands. India possesses very interesting heterogeneous groups of flora and fauna. The present study was conducted on 8- to 40-year-old shipwrecks in Indian waters. A sunken shipwreck may be regarded as an artificial reef providing shelter for fish and invertebrate faunal communities. Artificial reefs prevent destructive fishing, coastal erosion and are beneficial in reef conservation and rehabilitation efforts. This study revealed the composition of benthic organisms on the wrecks with the help of line intercept transect and belt transect methods. The range of live coral cover found in the vertical direction was 3.7–6.5 percent and in the horizontal direction was 9.5–26.1 percent. Abundance and diversity of reef fish at five different shipwrecks were compared.