Assessment on coral reef and seagrass meadows within the 10km radius from the proposed groynes site in Keelavaippar coast, Gulf of Mannar 1. BACKGROUND The Gulf of Mannar (GoM) located in the southeast coast of India extends from Rameswaram Island in the north to Kanyakumari in the south and is important coastal area. GoM has been declared as Marine Biosphere Reserve by Government of India in 1989, covering 10,500 km2. Corals and coral reefs of Gulf of Mannar form an important ecosystem, which support a variety of commercial and ornamental faunal and floral species including fishery resources. The islands occur at an average distance of 8-10 km from the mainland. The 21 islands and the surrounding shallow water area covering 560 km2 were declared as Marine National Park. Along with corals, luxuriant and patch seagrass meadows in GoM provide high biodiversity. The Tuticorin group of islands is located at the southern tip of the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park which consists of four islands. Among them, two coral reef islands which occur closer to the proposed groynes location. Proposed groynessites are located in Keelavipar coast and the project site comes within the Marine biosphere Reserve and about 2 Km away from the Marine National Park boundary. Tamil nadu fisheries department proposed to set up three groynes (Groynes - 1, Groynes - 2 and Groynes - 3) in Keelavaipar coast within 1 km proximity to the marine zone and these sites occurring in shore distance of 1 Km. Groynes - 1 would be covering a distance of 800 meter; Groynes - 2 covers a distance of 500 meter; and Groynes - 3 which is covering a distance of 100 meter towards marine zone. Project site is located in close proximity to the ecological sensitive habitats (Coral reef and seagrass meadows). Thus, coral reef and seagrass meadows baseline data collection is very much essential to find out the diversity of resources and distribution pattern in the nearby project location in order to take proper management measures. Hence, the present assessment was carried out to collect data on the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine biodiversity including ecologically sensitive habitats (corals and seagrass beds) and fish population in the sea area within 10 km radius from groynes site. 1 2. Methodology The study area is divided into eight zones (Zone 1 to Zone 8) depending on horizontal distance from the shoreline (Fig. 1). Zones are further divided into equal spaced grids (G) of approximately 1 sq km each and totally 116 numbers of grids formed with in the 10 km radius. Zone 1 is located nearer to the groynes point which consist of G1 to G16; Zone 2 (G17 to G34); Zone 3 (G35 to G51) ; Zone 4 (G52 to G67) ; Zone 5 (G68 to G82) ; Zone 6 (G83 to G95) ; Zone 7 (G96 to G105) ; Zone 8 (G106 to G116), which was away from the groynes. Fig. 1: Map showing the monitoring location in Keelavaipar Coast The survey started with mapping of the proposed area, using manta tow technique (Done et al., 1982) within 10 km radius area. The assessment involved SCUBA diving. Coral reef habitat sites were estimated by using the Line Intercept Transect (LIT) followed by standard monitoring protocol (English et al., 1997). Four to six line intercept transect (20 m) were laid on the benthic forms to assess the coral, algae, other fauna and abiotic percentage cover in the 2 each grid. Coral recruitment density and coral health issues prevalence were assessed along the transect line. Seagrass meadows were assessed by using 0.5 X 0.5 m2 quadrats (Saito and Atobe, 1970) and seagrass cover and shoot density field data were collected from the grids. Quadrat number varies according to the availability of seagrass resources. The macro faunal communities were assessed using 1 X 1 m2 quadrats following the method of English et al., (1997). Fish abundance and diversity was assessed using belt transect method (English et al. 1997). Length of each transect was 50 m and each transect was separated by 50 m gap. All the fishes encountered within 2.5 meters on both side.The mean seagrass cover and coral cover were calculated only for the observed grids respectively.The present assessment was carried out between 15th March 2017 and 25th March 2017. Three fishing villages (Sippikulam, Vipar and Periyasamipuram) were selected to study the fishery resources from the project site and fish landing data was collected during March 2016 to February 2017. A standard fish landing monitoring protocol were followed by Srinath et al., (2005). Coordinates of each grid are given below Zone - 1 Grid No. Latitude Longitude 1 8°56'44.12"N 78°12'7.50"E 2 8°57'2.58"N 78°12'27.97"E 3 8°57'24.42"N 78°12'50.72"E 4 8°57'47.66"N 78°13'17.24"E 5 8°58'9.91"N 78°13'45.46"E 6 8°58'32.68"N 78°14'15.09"E 7 8°58'55.05"N 78°14'46.19"E 8 8°59'19.82"N 78°15'16.54"E 9 8°59'41.66"N 78°15'48.81"E 10 9° 0'3.24"N 78°16'18.02"E 11 9° 0'23.13"N 78°16'45.34"E 12 9° 0'41.89"N 78°17'13.12"E 13 9° 1'1.01"N 78°17'40.26"E 14 9° 1'20.65"N 78°18'6.82"E 15 9° 1'42.31"N 78°18'34.84"E 16 9° 2'5.16"N 78°19'5.27"E 3 Zone – 2 Grid No. Latitude Longitude 17 9° 1'38.47"N 78°19'18.02"E 18 9° 1'16.84"N 78°18'50.40"E 19 9° 0'55.04"N 78°18'21.32"E 20 9° 0'33.99"N 78°17'55.01"E 21 9° 0'14.48"N 78°17'28.06"E 22 8°59'53.56"N 78°17'1.05"E 23 8°59'33.07"N 78°16'33.08"E 24 8°59'11.67"N 78°16'3.81"E 25 8°58'47.98"N 78°15'32.67"E 26 8°58'24.83"N 78°15'2.12"E 27 8°58'1.32"N 78°14'31.42"E 28 8°57'39.22"N 78°14'0.62"E 29 8°57'16.45"N 78°13'31.54"E 30 8°56'55.88"N 78°13'4.19"E 31 8°56'38.71"N 78°12'39.67"E 32 8°56'22.81"N 78°12'17.27"E 33 8°56'6.52"N 78°11'58.14"E 34 8°55'55.30"N 78°11'40.77"E Zone – 3 Grid No. Latitude Longitude 35 8°55'39.21"N 78°12'12.78"E 36 8°55'53.68"N 78°12'33.19"E 37 8°56'9.44"N 78°12'54.79"E 38 8°56'28.18"N 78°13'19.13"E 39 8°56'49.13"N 78°13'47.63"E 40 8°57'9.43"N 78°14'15.77"E 41 8°57'32.93"N 78°14'47.55"E 42 8°57'56.60"N 78°15'20.10"E 43 8°58'18.17"N 78°15'50.01"E 44 8°58'40.39"N 78°16'20.67"E 45 8°59'2.96"N 78°16'51.28"E 46 8°59'23.42"N 78°17'18.62"E 47 8°59'41.41"N 78°17'45.52"E 48 9° 0'2.73"N 78°18'12.27"E 49 9° 0'21.90"N 78°18'38.94"E 50 9° 0'42.12"N 78°19'7.70"E 51 9° 1'3.16"N 78°19'32.90"E 4 Zone – 4 Grid No. Latitude Longitude 52 9° 0'11.07"N 78°19'26.62"E 53 8°59'50.17"N 78°18'57.72"E 54 8°59'29.08"N 78°18'30.14"E 55 8°59'10.26"N 78°18'3.29"E 56 8°58'50.18"N 78°17'36.01"E 57 8°58'31.04"N 78°17'8.99"E 58 8°58'9.43"N 78°16'39.01"E 59 8°57'47.22"N 78°16'8.63"E 60 8°57'24.28"N 78°15'36.98"E 61 8°57'1.07"N 78°15'4.81"E 62 8°56'37.49"N 78°14'34.88"E 63 8°56'15.89"N 78°14'4.69"E 64 8°55'55.69"N 78°13'35.73"E 65 8°55'37.61"N 78°13'12.00"E 66 8°55'22.10"N 78°12'49.54"E 67 8°55'7.97"N 78°12'28.74"E Zone - 5 Grid No. Latitude Longitude 68 8°54'47.99"N 78°13'7.51"E 69 8°55'4.32"N 78°13'30.16"E 70 8°55'21.19"N 78°13'53.60"E 71 8°55'42.33"N 78°14'22.67"E 72 8°56'6.76"N 78°14'53.19"E 73 8°56'27.75"N 78°15'22.62"E 74 8°56'52.90"N 78°15'56.11"E 75 8°57'14.88"N 78°16'26.80"E 76 8°57'38.27"N 78°16'57.79"E 77 8°58'0.05"N 78°17'26.33"E 78 8°58'19.82"N 78°17'53.64"E 79 8°58'40.73"N 78°18'21.17"E 80 8°58'59.97"N 78°18'47.63"E 81 8°59'20.86"N 78°19'14.43"E 82 8°59'41.25"N 78°19'40.30"E 5 Zone – 6 Grid No.