Bivalves numbers, coastal Karnataka water quality declining: Study

Team Udayavani, Feb 12, 2020, 4:09 PM IST

Mangaluru: The number of clams, mussels and oysters along coastal Karnataka has dwindled by more than half in the past decade and this indicates of the deterioration in the quality of seawater a new study claims.

The factors for the steep decline in bivalves, the class name for these molluscs, the study says could be declining nutrients in the waters, sand mining, over-extraction of shells and changes in water temperature.

The study was done by Ramachandra Bhatta, former ICAR-Emeritus scientist as part of a committee constituted by the state’s Planning Department.

Bhatta has stated that the restriction in the flow of freshwater to the sea due to construction of dams is causing the sea to lose vital nutrients severely affecting marine life.

He suggested that this trend can be checked by introducing farmed bivalves production under the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) project.

Another revelation from the study was the near disappearance of fish species such as mackerel and sardine near the sea around Mangaluru and Surathkal due to dumping of industrial effluents there.