Comparative Study Of The Abiotic And Biotic Components Of an Aquaculture Pond And Its Adjacent Thane Creek Area, Maharashtra,
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Item Comparative Study Of The Abiotic And Biotic Components Of an Aquaculture Pond And Its Adjacent Thane Creek Area, Maharashtra,(2011-11) Virkar, Prakash, G.; Athalye, R.P.; Kurve, P.N.; Borkar, M.U.; Quadros, GoldinFishery of Thane creek has significantly declined due to heavy pollution. Hence fishermen grow fish in aquaculture ponds along the banks of the creek. They collect creek water in the ponds during the spring tide of monsoon when the pollutants are diluted and the water contains fishes. In the following months adding fresh water into the ponds compensates the evaporative water loss and additional fertilizers are not added. The ponds give an annual average fish yield of 600 kg/hectare (approx), when the adjacent creek area has uncertain and negligible fish yield, which makes fishing in that area uneconomical. The fishermen obtain Mugil, Tilapia, Lateus calcarifer and prawns from the pond. A comparison of the abiotic and biotic components of an aquaculture pond near Thane city and the adjacent creek area showed better dissolved oxygen and lower average salinity in the pond water than the creek. The other water parameters did not vary significantly. Among the biotic components the phytoplankton and the macrobenthos had comparable densities in both the pond and the creek. However average density of zooplankton was higher in pond and that of meiobenthos was significantly high in the creek. It is inferred that the aquaculture pond gave better fish yield than the creek, mainly due to better water quality interms of dissolved oxygen; as it did not receive, organic sewage load and there was intermittent addition of fresh water keeping the salinity moderate.