Proceedings of the International Academy of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, 2018, 8(4): 231-271 Article Marine and estuarine fish fauna of Tamil Nadu, India 1,2 3 1 1 H.S. Mogalekar , J. Canciyal , D.S. Patadia , C. Sudhan 1Fisheries College and Research Institute, Thoothukudi - 628 008, Tamil Nadu, India 2College of Fisheries, Dholi, Muzaffarpur - 843 121, Bihar, India 3Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, Kolkata - 700 120, West Bengal, India E-mail:
[email protected] Received 20 June 2018; Accepted 25 July 2018; Published 1 December 2018 Abstract Varied marine and estuarine ecosystems of Tamil Nadu endowed with diverse fish fauna. A total of 1656 fish species under two classes, 40 orders, 191 families and 683 geranra reported from marine and estuarine waters of Tamil Nadu. In the checklist, 1075 fish species were primary marine water and remaining 581 species were diadromus. In total, 128 species were reported under class Elasmobranchii (11 orders, 36 families and 70 genera) and 1528 species under class Actinopterygii (29 orders, 155 families and 613 genera). The top five order with diverse species composition were Perciformes (932 species; 56.29% of the total fauna), Tetraodontiformes (99 species), Pleuronectiforms (77 species), Clupeiformes (72 species) and Scorpaeniformes (69 species). At the family level, the Gobiidae has the greatest number of species (86 species), followed by the Carangidae (65 species), Labridae (64 species) and Serranidae (63 species). Fishery status assessment revealed existence of 1029 species worth for capture fishery, 425 species worth for aquarium fishery, 84 species worth for culture fishery, 242 species worth for sport fishery and 60 species worth for bait fishery.