Progress report for
Achievement at a glance
The post bleaching monitoring in Gulf of Mannar (GoM) was conducted in 2017. In general, there is a slight recovery i.e. live coral cover increased from 22.69% in 2016 to 23.78% in 2017.
Algae were the dominant benthic category with an average cover of 36.11% during 2016 which decreased slightly to 34.33% during 2017. Abiotic was the other dominant benthic category that includes dead corals and sand with 28.26% during 2016 and did not change much during 2017 with 28.8%. CCA (crustose coralline algae) cover increased from 4.82% in 2016 to 5.26% in 2017. Soft coral cover was 1.16 and 1.21% respectively during 2016 and 2017. CM (Coral massive) was the dominant live coral category in Gulf of Mannar with 10.19% during 2017 that was 10.17% during 2016. ACB (Acropora branching) was the next dominant category with 4.37% during 2017 which was 3.91% during 2016.
Among the three Island groups, Tuticorin group had the highest live coral cover with 26.82% in 2016 which increased to 28.62% in 2017; in Keelakarai group from 26.24% to 27.28%; and in Mandapam group from 15.02% to 15.45%. Algae cover was highest in Tuticorin group (50.77%) during 2016 and 48.28% during 2017. Mandapam group had the highest average cover of abiotic with 43.01% during 2016 and 43.28% during 2017.
The post bleaching monitoring for 2018 is in progress, which will be completed before December 2018. The results show that the recovery is good and steady.
Submitted on
16 November, 2018
Progress Status
On track
