Shellfish resources around Madras Atomic Power Station Kalpakkam, Southeast India

Abstract

A survey has been made to identify and assess the shellfish resources potential along the Kalpakkam coastal waters. Stratified random sampling was used and the collected shellfish were identified down to species level. A total of 108 species belonging to 18 species of crustaceans, 86 species of molluscs, and 4 species of echinoderms were identified. A complete checklist of the entire marine faunal information around Kalpakkam coast is not available yet. Therefore, the present work was carried out and collected available information of marine shellfish around Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS), Kalpakkam sites, India. In addition, the present checklist will provide baseline information to ecologists and taxonomists in future systematic work with respect to shellfish resources around MAPS.

Keywords

• crustaceans
• echinoderms
• Kalpakkam
• Madras Atomic Power Station
• molluscs
• shellfish