Coastal Resource Assessment and Management - Achievements

a. Health Monitoring of Coral Reefs

Detail assessment of live coral cover and dead cover of reef building corals have been documented in 21 islands of Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay regions.
A new coral reef bed has been identified alongChennai coast.
Two new distributional report of anthozoans (one sphenopid zoanthid: Palythoa tuberculosa and one scleractinian corals: Pavona explanulata) recorded from Gulf of Mannar.
Community structure of scleractinian corals represented 79 species of hard corals belonging to 13 families and 22 genera of coral species, of which family Acroporidae has the maximum representation of coral species (25) followed by family Merulinidae (22).
Coral Health Index was prepared for the 21 islands of Gulf of Mannar based on the assessment of live coral cover.

b. Coral Restoration

Transplantation of scleractinian corals (Acropora muricata, Acropora hyacinthus, Acropora gemmifera, Montipora digitata and Pocillopora damicornis) was successfully done since 2018 onwards at Gulf of Mannar Marine National park and Palk Bay.
Detail assessment of coral growth and average survival rate was documented.
Photographic and Videographic evidence of large number of fish assemblage documented from the restoration site with the increased growth of the restored corals.
Assessment of Marine Invertebrates in restoration site documented.

c. Capacity Building and Training Programme

Two days Biodiversity monitoring training programme (March, 2019) was jointly organized by National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), Mandapam Field Office and Mandapam Wildlife Range, Department of Environment and Forest, Tamil Nadu.
Seaweed cultivation training programme and supply of seaweed rafts to fisher-folk communities organized in April 2022 to encourage the coastal communities towards sustainable livelihood programme.