in Sri Lanka - Ministry of Environment

Most species of crustaceans still survive in the reefs located in the Northern and Eastern coastthat were spared of human impacts for 3 decades due to the war. However, these reefs arealso being subject to the same fate at present with the opening up of these areas after theend of the war. Therefore, study and conservation of these reefs and their diversity is of primeimportance to ensure survival of these species and the crustacean bio-diversity of Sri Lanka.Conclusions and recommendationsThe Current level of knowledge on marine Crustacea is far from complete with significantgaps in the knowledge on many groups of taxa as well as the status of their populations. It isimportant to carry out detailed studies on the Sri Lankan Marine Crustacean fauna as early aspossible as the populations are under threat both from excessive extraction as well as majorhabitat loss.Only a few studies have focussed on marine Crustacea of Sri Lanka. Further, most of the workcarried out by local scientists to date focused mainly on commercially important food species.During the last 3 decades the diving scientists contributed significantly for the furthering ofknowledge on marine natural habitats including marine crustacea. The extensive extraction ofcrustaceans as an export resource both as food and for the ornamental marine aquarium tradehave also indirectly added to the knowledge of species in our waters. As in the case of mostmarine invertebrate fauna, a significant amount of work needs to be carried out to gain a betterunderstanding of the true diversity of marine Crustaceans of Sri Lanka as well as their biologyand conservation status.An effort has to be taken to effectively enforce the existing fishing regulations with a bettermechanism for monitoring the efficiency of enforcement. Further, steps must be taken to phaseout tightly regulate all wild collection of Marine ornamental species. The financial benefitsachieved through exploitation of ornamental species for export can be nullified by the benefitsthat can be accrued from tourism and the ecosystem services that can be obtained by retaininghealthy reefs. The greatest need however, is to conserve the critical marine habitats to ensurelong term survival of our rich marine biodiversity.398