Opinion

A Note on Portunid Crabs of Odisha Coast, India

Dev Roy MK¹, Rath S² and Nandi NC¹*

¹Social Environmental and Biological Association, India

²Zoological Survey of India, India

Submission: February 09, 2017; Published: February 13, 2017

*Corresponding author: Nandi NC, Social Environmental and Biological Association, Kolkata, India, Tel: 9674002604; Email: nepalchandra.nand@gmail.com

How to cite this article: Dev R M, Rath S, Nandi N. Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) Whistle Sound by Denoising Spectra with Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). Ocean & fish Open Access J. 2017; 1(3): 555562. DOI: 10.19080/OFOAJ.2017.01.555562

Opinion

Portunid crabs belonging to the genera, viz., Scylla, Portunus and Charybdis species mostly represent edible shellfishes with high quality meat content. These crabs are widely valued in domestic and export markets Nandi & Pramanik [1]. They are mostly marine species; estuarine forms are also not uncommon. In the eastern maritime States of India, Odisha coast is 480 km long with a continental shelf area of 32,000 sq km. In this coastal region there are a number of estuaries (Mahanadi, Rhushikulya, Bahuda, Brahmani-Baitarini) and a large brackish water lagoon, known as Chilka Lake, an important Ramsar site in India. All these coastal habitats support important fish and shell fish resources of the country. A perusal of literature as well as investigation undertaken by the authors reveals a total of 29 portunid crabs species belonging to three subfamilies and six genera (Table 1) from this coast including five new records, (Table 2, Figure 1) viz., Portunus (Xiphonectes) hastatoides (Fabricius), Charybdis (Charybdis) lucifera (Fabricius), Charybdis (Charybdis) variegata (Fabricius) and Charybdis (Goniohellenus) truncata (Fabricius). It is mentioned that literature studies have revealed that in India, Andaman and Nicobar Islands support maximum number of 55 portunid species Dev Roy & Nandi [2], followed by 53 species from Tamil Nadu coast Dev Roy & Nandi [3] 23 species from West Bengal coast Dev Roy & Nandi [4] and 22 species from Andhra Pradesh coast Dev Roy & Nandi [5]. Among the species listed, Scylla serrata, S. olivacea, S. tranquebarica, Portunus pelagicus and P. sanguinolentus are highly exploited from this coast. Thus, it is necessary to encourage culture of crabs, especially mud crab fattening and farming segregating mud crab species towards cost effective production of crabs Nandi, et al. [6], Pramanik & Nandi [7] and to meet the local demand as well as export market.

References

1. Nandi NC, Pramanik SK (1994) Crabs and Crab Fisheries of Sundarban. Hindustan Publishing Corporation, Delhi, India, pp. 1-192.
2. Dev Roy MK, Nandi NC (2012) Brachyuran crabs (Crustacea). Fauna of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, State Fauna Series. Zool Surv, Kolkata, India 19(1): 1-236.
3. Dev Roy MK, Nandi NC (2007a) Brachyuran diversity in coastal ecosystems of Tamil Nadu. J Environ & Sociobiol 4(2): 169-192.
4. Dev Roy MK, Nandi NC (2008) Checklist and distribution of brachyuran crabs of West Bengal. J Environ & Sociobiol 5(2): 193-216.
5. Dev Roy MK, Nandi NC (2007b) Brachyuran bioresources of coastal Andhra Pradesh. In: National Symposium on Conservation and Valuation of Marine Biodiversity, Zool Surv Kolkata, India, pp 1-445.
6. Nandi NC, Pramanik SK, Dev Roy MK (2016) Mud Crab Culture: Relevance of Species Identity in Production Economics with Reference to Sundarban Coast. J Fisheries Sciences 10(4): 84-89.
7. Pramanik CSK, Nandi NC (2012) Crab fattening (Chamber chas)- A promising enterprise in Indian part of Sundarban. J Environ & Sociobiol 9(1): 78.