Piyush Vadher, I. R. Gadhvi, Hetal Parekh and Jignesh Dabhi
Among the eight maritime States of India, Gujarat, situated on the western coast of India, with the coastline about 1650 km long shore which comprises about 22 % coastal stretch of the total coastline of India. Gujarat coastline consist 28 % sandy beach, 21 % rocky coast, 29 % muddy flats, 22 % marshy coast. Gujarat coast could be broadly described into four regions viz., the Gulf of Kuchchh, the Saurashtra Coast, the Gulf of Cambay and the South Gujarat Coast. The marine biodiversity of Gujarat coast of India is rich and much of the world’s wealth of biodiversity is found in highly diverse coastal habitats. A present study was carried out on marine molluscan accessibility among Chorwad coast of Gujarat coastline to identify the shell resources potential for development of a small-scale shell industry. A large collection of marine molluscan was made among the coastal line of Chorwad found 69 species (31 families) of marine molluscan over a 9 months period from July - 2013 to March - 2014. Most of the species were common like Babylonia spirata, Bulla ampulla, Chiton peregrines, Chiton spp., Conus cumnigii, Mitra ambigua, Mitra guttata, Mitra scutulata, Murex brunneus, Purpura panama, Tibia curta, Turbo brunneus were available in Chorwad coast. The present study revealed that the occurrence of marine molluscan species along the Chorwad coast of Gujarat.
