Assessment of post tsunami coral reef resource in Pongi Balu coast, south Andaman Islands

Abstract

In the present study, an assessment of the status of coral reefs along the Pongi Balu coast, south Andaman Islands, which is a part of the Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, has been made by scuba diving, low draft glass-bottom boat and visual interpretation in some places during low-tide condition. The coral reef boundaries have been accurately determined with the help of a low draft glass-bottom boat fitted with a real time kinematics global positioning system, and the existing coral reefs map of the area has been updated using the geographic information system technique. A total of 161.6 ha of previously existed live coral reefs were surveyed along the Pongi Balu coast and out of that ‘live coral’ was found over 81.4 ha and ‘dead coral’ was found over 60.6 ha whereas 19.6 ha area was found to have been lost from the existing coral reefs and categorized as ‘no coral’. The study highlights a few natural and anthropogenic factors affecting the existing coral reefs and hindering the re-establishment of coral reefs in the study area.