Distribution and abundance of zooplankton in the northern Arabian Sea with reference to oil spill in the Gulf waters

Mathew, K J and Solomon, K (1996) Distribution and abundance of zooplankton in the northern Arabian Sea with reference to oil spill in the Gulf waters. In: Second workshop on scientific results of FORV Sagar Sampada, 15-17 February 1994, Kochi.

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Abstract

Zooplankton of the northern Arabian Sea between lat. 16° and 23°N and long. 62° and 73°E was studied in March, 1991 for understanding the impact on zooplankton, of the large scale oil slick occurred in the Gulf waters during the Gulf War in January-February, 1991. On the whole the zooplankton biomass was very rich in the area and there was no evidence to show that the zooplankton community, up to a depth of 200 m was adversely affected by the oil slick. On the other hand serious depletion in the populations of zooplankton was noticed in the Bombay High area (stn.2241) where the oil drilling operations are on and tar balls of different sizes were collected in the plankton net operated at these stations. An increase from west to east was noticed in general with regard to several groups of zooplankton. However, the total biomass showed an increase from east to west. This increase was mainly due to the populations of large sized salps, west of long 68°E which also excluded other plankters from this area. The high quantities of salps with fair abundance of other plankters yielded biomass values as high as 70724 ml/1000 m which is the highest value ever recorded from the Indian Ocean.

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