L - Cochin University of Science and Technology

as the best indicators of the environmental changes caused by pollution, because of
their constant presence, relatively long life span, sluggish or sedentary habits and
tolerance to differing stress.
Quantitative study of benthos attained importance after the work of Peterson
(l911, 1913) in Danish waters. Belegvad (1930,1932), Jones (1956) and Sanders
(1956) after carrying out intensive studies on the bottom fauna have revealed the
importance of study of benthic biomass in the evaluation in utilization of benthos as
food for higher carnivores and fishes. Sanders (1969) and Sanders et al., (1965) also
studied faunal distribution and salinity and ecology of deep-sea benthos.
In the Indian basin, the bottom fauna was first studied by Annandale (1907)
and Annandale and Kemp (1915). Neyman (1969) reported the benthos of the
shelves in the northern part of Indian Ocean and Desai (1973) studied the benthic
productivity of the Indian Ocean. After that Parulekar (1981), Parulekar et al., (1982
b) worked on the benthos of the Indian Ocean and other investigations on the benthos
of the entire Indian basin includes Parulekar et al., (1982a), Parulekar (1985),
Parulekar et al., (1992) and Ansari et al., (1996). Harkantra et al., (1980) studied
the benthos of the entire west cost up to 70 m depth, Joydas and Damodaran (2001)
studied the polychaetes along the west coast of India and Joydas (2002) reported the
macrobenths along the west coast of India. Most of the studies in the west coast were
concentrated on the central west coast, which includes the works of Parulekar (1973),
Ansari et al., (1977b), Harkantra and Parulekar (1981), Devassy et al., (1987),
Varshney et al., (1988), Vizakat et al., (1991), Prabhu et al., (1993) and
Gopalakrishnan and Nair (1998). In the southwest coast, the earlier reports on the
benthos from the coastal and estuarine waters were mainly from the investigations of
Seshappa (1953), Kurian (1953,1967), Damodaran (1973) and Pillai (1977). The
works pertaining to NW coast of India were a few, of which Savich (1972) and
Prabhu & Davan (1974) have demonstrated a direct relation between demersal fish
catch and abundance of bottom fauna of the Pakistan shelf and Morrnugao coast
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