Fishermen remove bio-markers from dying Ennore Creek

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

As Ennore Creek is slowly being poisoned to death by industrial waste,
fishermen devoid of fishes are now concentrating on plucking out
Polychaetes, the bio-marker as well as vital sea food for marine
organisms of the estuary, to eke out their livelihood.

Rising early in the morning before the sun pours out its fury,
fishermen in boats ferry out underneath the railway bridge and wade
through the water in search of polychaetes.

“We have to scour through the water for these poochis (polychaetes).
It has a huge value abroad,” says Rajesh on condition of anonymity.

He says a kilogram of polychaetes could get him Rs 1,000 a month and
if exported it fetches around Rs 3,000. “The pollution along the creek
has taken away our livelihood. This is now fetching us good money,” he
says unaware of the threat he is causing to the marine fauna in the
region.

Once the paradise for mangroves, turtles and some rare species, the
creek was a means of livelihood for the fisherfolk of three hamlets
but then due to effluents of industries as well as sewage, the creek
is turning out toxic for fishermen as well as marine life.

Thanks to the demand of polychaete from abroad as well as prawn
industry, fishermen are now  scanning the waterbody for hours in a
knee deep water to get a kilo of  polychates. But then it is also
having a negative effect on the estuary as it is losing out to one of
the vital food chain.

Dasan, a fisherman in the area, says that since the poochis are
snuffed out from the estuary there is hardly any fish available.

Interestingly,  polychaetes are the natural diet and important source
of nutrient for fish larvae in the marine environment.

National institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) director M A Atmanand
says that polychaetes are sensitive to the natural conditions and any
alteration in the physicochemical parameters of these natural habitats
will negatively influence its distribution and abundance.

He says polychaetes (Neries sp.) are highly sought after for its value
as recreational fishing bait as well as for fish culture diet and many
species of them are being over exploited.

Interestingly, NIOT is planning to regulate the polychaete collection.
“We are considering to regulate polychaete catch in the creek. The
plan is to have the collection of polychaete only through trained
people by issuing license as being practiced in Australia,” he says.

But the impact of polychaete fishing has hit the fishermen hard in
Ennore Creek. “The fishing of polychaetes has dwindled the amount of
fish as well as other marine life which feeds on the benthic worms,”
says a official of Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management
Project Directorate (ICMAM) which is conducting a survey of the creek.
However, he refused to divulge anything further stating he doesn’t
have the authority to talk to media.

Atmanand says that polychaetes otherwise known as bristle worms are a
group of Annelids ("ringed worms" or "segmented worms"),predominantly
marine present in every seafloor irrespective of depth and
temperature.

This highly diverse group of organisms with around 8,000 species
ranging from a few millimeters to a whopping 20 ft long was described
all over the marine environments.

Because of its omnipresence in every marine and brackishwater
ecosystems, marine biologists considers them as an indicator to study
the effect of pollutants as well as natural and human induced changes.
The name polychaete is derived from the Greek words (poly= many;
chaite = long hair) due to the presence of many bristles in each of
its segments, Atmanand says.

The primary objective of bio-monitoring is to access the impact of
man-made changes such as the introduction of toxic chemicals on the
biosphere by examining the effects the chemicals have on the
polychaete. The United Kingdom, United states and many European
nations use them as pollution indicators, it is learnt.

But how could the polychaetes be protected in Ennore Creek from being
over-fished. “Since, they are now part of the livelihood of farmers
who are battling the alarming levels of pollution. The government
instead of taking any drastic measure, should form a nodal agency to
develop polychaete culture in Ennore Creek. This could solve the
livelihood issue of the fishermen,” a social activist  says.

Interestingly, the creek eco-system is also facing the threat from
debris of construction material which was discarded after building the
Ennore railway bridge. This also chokes the creek of pollutants and
hardly any tidal water to cleanse it.

Atmanand says dredging till Railway Bridge (another 1.5 km) will
ensure the tidal and the minimum flow required to maintain the creek
ecosystem. However, it needs to be studied for its impact on
polychaete and other benthic faunal diversity, he says.



Factfile:



-- Polychaetes are dominant benthic fauna in the marine environment.



--- Polychaetes occur in most habitats ranging from estuaries and

inshore waters to the open sea and hyper saline lagoons.



--- There are 153 species of polychaetes that occur in Indian

estuaries, representing about 37.46% of the total polychaetes present
in Indian seas.

--- While 119 species were found to occur only in east

coast estuaries, 11 species were found only in the west coast

estuaries.



--- As polychaetes are the main food supply of many commercial fishes,
they also serve as an important factor in the evaluation of fishing
grounds



--- Polychaetes also play an important role in biomonitoring the

marine environmental quality being monitors for toxic materials and
pollution indicators



--- Nearly 400 coastal people were collecting Polychaetes for

livelihood  and it is being sold for Rs 1000/kg to prawn brooders in

aquaculture industry.



--- Fishermen say the price of per kilogram of polychaetes in

international market is Rs 3,000 per kg