Some observations on the continental shelf waters along the east coast of India

Abstract

The hydrographic investigations of the shelf waters along the East coast of India (in the Bay of Bengal) were conducted during the month of March 1963 from Vishakhapatnam coast to Point Calimere coast on board the Researdi Vessel VARUNA. Due to the hmited period available it was not possible to work out any planned linear sections for dynamic studies and hence the ship had to resort to a zig-zag track covering the shelf as far as possible within a duration of one week. Observations of temperature and saUnity at all the 164 stations were done at 0, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 50 metres. Since the data collected do not permit to have a detailed study of water masses along the East coast, the temperature and salinity characteristics were subjected to a frequency jiistribution study and discussed in the following text. Moreover, the whole area has been arbitrarily divided into four regions, viz., Vishakhapatnam to Kakinada, Kakinada to Kottapatam, Kottapatam to Madras and Madras to Point Calimere ; and the average temperature and salinity conditions at selected isobaric levels have been discussed.