Effects of bottom trawling on benthic fauna off Veraval coast, Gujarat

Veraval port was designed initially for 1,200 fishing trawlers but 2793 trawlers are being operated from this port making it the largest trawler port of Gujarat. This work highlights the possible impact of bottom trawling on the sediment characteristics, the sediment heavy metals, epifauna, macrobenthos and meiobenthos of commercial trawling grounds of Veraval coast. A single experimental trawling itself considerably reduced the organic matter content at all water depths. The epifaunal soft corals -Litophyton sp. & Studeriotes sp. and the gorgonians- Subergorgia suberosa & Juncella juncea were destroyed due to intense trawling. The increase in the abundance of macrofauna and meiofauna after trawling signifies that they are exposed during bottom trawling. The stress on biodiversity of macrofauna and meiofauna were more evident in lightly trawled areas (15-20 m water depth) than in heavily trawled areas (36-40 m water depth). This book will provide a major fillip to the studies on impact of bottom trawling on the benthic fauna along the coast of India.