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Mangroves support and enhance fisheries by serving as a breeding ground and nursery habitat for aquatic life. While mangroves are widely recognized for their role in enhancing both small scale and commercial fisheries, they are rapidly disappearing. The understanding of this ecosystem service and its value in both social and economic terms will help enhance the sustainable management of both mangroves and fisheries. This paper provides a critical review of mangroves and their importance in capture fisheries and also discusses the ecological significance of this ecosystem in fisheries enhancement by explaining the different mangrove associated fisheries. As the fisheries value of mangroves is highly site-specific, the paper illustrates the drivers and values of mangrove associated fisheries. Decision-makers can use this information to make decisions relating to conservation and restoration of mangrove ecosystems and sustainable fishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytoplankton community structure along the coastal waters of the Northeastern Arabian Sea (NEAS) was analysed for three years (2009, 2011 and 2012) during the winter monsoon season. The coastal waters of NEAS, especially Saurashtra coast are a region of high fishery potential. A total of 137 species of phytoplankton were identified. The community structure of phytoplankton showed significant inter-annual variability. The study highlights the persistence of certain non-indigenous phytoplankton species such as Scrippsiella trochoidea, Karenia mikimotoi and potentially harmful dinoflagellates mainly Gonyaulax polygramma, Dinophysis acuminata, D. miles and Tripos furca in the region that can raise probable threats towards the indigenous species and can cause harmful or toxic events. The increased abundance of diatom, Pseudo-nitzschia spp. that can produce toxins at certain threshold levels was also observed. The possible reason for the increased abundance of such groups can be suggestively due to the increased anthropogenic inputs into the coastal waters and intense fishing and maritime activity in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morphological identification of the marine cyclopoid copepodDioithona rigidain combination with sequencing a 645 bp fragment of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase c subunit I (mtCOI) gene, collected from offshore waters of Kavarathi Island, Lakshadweep Sea, is presented in this study. Kiefer in 1935 classifiedDioithonaas a separate genus fromOithona. The main distinguishing characters observed in the collected samples, such as the presence of well-developed P5 with 2 setae, 5 segmented urosome, 12 segmented antennule, compact dagger-like setae on the inner margin of proximal segment of exopod ramus in P1–P4 and engorged portion of P1-bearing a spine, confirmed their morphology toD. rigida.A comparison of setal formulae of the exopod and endopod ofD. rigidawith those recorded previously by various authors are also presented here. Maximum likelihood Tree analysis exhibited the clustering ofD. rigidasequences into a single clade (accession numbers KP972540.1-KR528588.1), which in contrast was 37–42% divergent from otherOithonaspecies. Further intra-specific divergence values of 0–2% also confirmed the genetic identity ofD. rigidaspecies.Paracyclopina nanawas selected as an out group displayed a diverged array. The present results distinctly differentiatedD. rigidafrom otherOithonaspecies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]