Sunirmal Giri and Susanta Kumar Chakraborty
The Sundarbans comprising of Hoogli- Matla estuarine system offers an excellent eco-zones for several finfish and shellfish species as it provides physiologically suitable environment with respect to different physicochemical parameters and abundant supply of nutrients to the aquatic subsystem in the form of detritus exported from the adjoining mangrove forest subsystem. The present study has been conducted during November, 2001 to October, 2003 in order to assess the diversity of the fishery resources and also to study the feasibility of sustainable development of culture and capture fishery along this coastal belt. . So far, 118 fin fishes ,24 shrimp species and 4 species of crabs have been recorded form different parts of Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve. Information relating to fish landings (weight / month) collected from different fish landing centres along the stretch of this environment were also recorded in the present study. Physicochemical parameters like Temperature, pH, DO, BOD, Light penetration, Turbidity, Salinity, TDS, TSS, Nitrate nitrogen, Phosphate phosphorus and Silicate have been estimated to understand the seasonal dynamics of this mangrove ecosystem and also to assess whether these parameters have any role in determining fish resources availability.
