INTRODUCTION:
The Port of Karachi ,is Pakistan's largest and busiest seaport, handling about 60% of the nation's cargo (25 million tons per annum). It is the main coastal town of Karachi, located in the central and western parts of the city, including the Port of Karachi and an extensive coastline with sandy beaches, small islands and mangrove forests. The port comprises a deep natural harbour with an 11-km long approach channel which provides safe navigation for vessels up to 75,000 DWT. The harbour of Karachi has an extreme length and breadth of about 5 m. Karchi harbour is protected from storms by peninsula (formerly an island) of Kiamari, promontory of Manora Island, and Oyster Rocks, which together block the greater part of the harbour entrance in the west. Manora, may have been a real island couple of hundred years ago but today it is connected to Karachi mainland via a 12 km long causeway (Sandspit beach) road. The most common route to reach Manora is via boat from Kimari harbor.
Manora or Manoro, is a small island (2.5 km²) located just south of the Port of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. The island is connected to the mainland by a 12 kilometre long causeway called the Sandspit. Manora and neighbouring islands form a protective barrier between Karachi harbour to the north and the Arabian Sea to the south. The western bay of the harbour contains endangered mangrove forests which border the Sandspit and Manora island. To the east is Karachi Bay and the beach towns of Kiamari and Clifton. I also found Shri Varun Dev Mandir on Manora beach. The mandir is abandoned now. Sea breeze is eating away the building from whatever is left by the scavengers. We have also visited “KARACHI ISLAND SCHOOL“
SITE DESCRIPTION:
Kiamari is the landing-place for passengers and goods, and has three piers and railway connexions. The harbour improvements were begun in 1854 with the building of the Napier Mole or causeway connecting Kiamari with the mainland. The entrance has a minimum depth of 25 ft.; and a large number of improvements and extensions have been carried out by the harbour board, which was created in 1880, and transformed in 1886 into the Karachi Port Trust. The flow of cargo to and from the port is hampered by severe congestion in the harbour with several other maritime facilities located close to the port. The main areas of port activity are two wharves – East Wharf with seventeen vessel berths and West Wharf with thirteen vessel berths. The West Wharf is the Karachi Fishing Harbour, and is the base for a large fleet of several thousand fishing vessels. The West Wharf also hosts a ship repair facility and shipyard and a naval dockyard at the tip of the wharf, while to the south of the port are the Karachi Naval Base and the Kiamari Boat Club. The Port of Karachi also faces competition from a new private terminal located 5 kilometres away in the larger harbour west of the port. In recent years the federal government has attempted to alleviate the increased congestion in the harbour by constructing a second port in Karachi thirty kilometres east at Port Qasim and a third major port at Gwadar about 650 kilometres west of Karachi.
SUMMARY:
The topographic structure of the Kiamari and other adjacent area possesses
Special features that support diversified fauna. It is important nursery and feeding grounds for a variety of pelagic and demersal fish and commercial prawn species. . Many types of shell and jellyfishes land on shores and our shoreline are dotted with a variety of seaweed
and algae. One finds flocks of seagulls and other sea birds floating on water, feeding on fish and swallows
diving in the sea to catch fishes, cranes and waterfowl hunting food in marshes and mangroves. During
winter, migratory birds come down in flock to feed on fish; their low fly-past in perfect formation over
the mangroves and marshes in thousands is a treat to watch.
The mangrove trees along the creek give shelter and protection to various species of invertebrate and vertebrate fauna like mollusk, prawn, insects, fish, birds and mammals. With the noticeable
degeneration of the creek habitat the mangrove population has been under great stress and is
declining. There are many reasons for the decline of this important habitat, including pollution, scarcity of fresh water, oil spilling , hardly any rains and indiscriminate cutting and grazing of trees due to lack of awareness of the value of the resources on the part of local inhabitants along the creek. The loss of mangroves eventually affects the overall fauna and flora associated with the mangrove ecosystem and the biodiversity of the plants and animals dwelling in this region remains under stress. The beach immediately east of the harbour was the scene of a significant oil spillage when the Greek-registered Tasman Spirit ran a ground in August 2003. The environmental impact included large numbers of dead fish and turtles and damage to a key mangrove forest, as well as dozens of people suffering nausea
The species richness of the creeks depends on the combination of hydrological factors (marine or
Fresh water) and biogeography.
In the study of the production of organic matter ion the ocean, it is necessary to find out not only how quickly organic matter is produced, but also how material is distributed. Suitable size of sea water obtains a fairly representative sample of small organisms such as the unicellular algae. Other common planktonic organisms are copepods and ostracopods, crutaeans, cnidrian, mysids, euphausia, polychaet larvae, oikopleura, cynobacteria and comb jellies and copepods are the insects of the sea and are the commonest planktonic animal. Ostracopods though less abundant.
Phytoplankton’s samples were collected from two different stations:
Station # 1(mangrove area) and
Station # 2 (open ocean).
The conclusion drawn from this sampling programme is given in brief in the latter part of this report.
EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE
1)STUDY AREA
Latitude
24.8225
Longitude
66.9797
Altitude (feet)
9
Lat (DMS)
24° 49' 21N
Long (DMS)
66° 58' 47E
Altitude (meters)
2
Environmental Concerns
The Port of Karachi ,is Pakistan's largest and busiest seaport, handling about 60% of the nation's cargo (25 million tons per annum). It is the main coastal town of Karachi, located in the central and western parts of the city, including the Port of Karachi and an extensive coastline with sandy beaches, small islands and mangrove forests. The port comprises a deep natural harbour with an 11-km long approach channel which provides safe navigation for vessels up to 75,000 DWT. The harbour of Karachi has an extreme length and breadth of about 5 m. Karchi harbour is protected from storms by peninsula (formerly an island) of Kiamari, promontory of Manora Island, and Oyster Rocks, which together block the greater part of the harbour entrance in the west. Manora, may have been a real island couple of hundred years ago but today it is connected to Karachi mainland via a 12 km long causeway (Sandspit beach) road. The most common route to reach Manora is via boat from Kimari harbor.
Manora or Manoro, is a small island (2.5 km²) located just south of the Port of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. The island is connected to the mainland by a 12 kilometre long causeway called the Sandspit. Manora and neighbouring islands form a protective barrier between Karachi harbour to the north and the Arabian Sea to the south. The western bay of the harbour contains endangered mangrove forests which border the Sandspit and Manora island. To the east is Karachi Bay and the beach towns of Kiamari and Clifton. I also found Shri Varun Dev Mandir on Manora beach. The mandir is abandoned now. Sea breeze is eating away the building from whatever is left by the scavengers. We have also visited “KARACHI ISLAND SCHOOL“
SITE DESCRIPTION:
Kiamari is the landing-place for passengers and goods, and has three piers and railway connexions. The harbour improvements were begun in 1854 with the building of the Napier Mole or causeway connecting Kiamari with the mainland. The entrance has a minimum depth of 25 ft.; and a large number of improvements and extensions have been carried out by the harbour board, which was created in 1880, and transformed in 1886 into the Karachi Port Trust. The flow of cargo to and from the port is hampered by severe congestion in the harbour with several other maritime facilities located close to the port. The main areas of port activity are two wharves – East Wharf with seventeen vessel berths and West Wharf with thirteen vessel berths. The West Wharf is the Karachi Fishing Harbour, and is the base for a large fleet of several thousand fishing vessels. The West Wharf also hosts a ship repair facility and shipyard and a naval dockyard at the tip of the wharf, while to the south of the port are the Karachi Naval Base and the Kiamari Boat Club. The Port of Karachi also faces competition from a new private terminal located 5 kilometres away in the larger harbour west of the port. In recent years the federal government has attempted to alleviate the increased congestion in the harbour by constructing a second port in Karachi thirty kilometres east at Port Qasim and a third major port at Gwadar about 650 kilometres west of Karachi.
SUMMARY:
The topographic structure of the Kiamari and other adjacent area possesses
Special features that support diversified fauna. It is important nursery and feeding grounds for a variety of pelagic and demersal fish and commercial prawn species. . Many types of shell and jellyfishes land on shores and our shoreline are dotted with a variety of seaweed
and algae. One finds flocks of seagulls and other sea birds floating on water, feeding on fish and swallows
diving in the sea to catch fishes, cranes and waterfowl hunting food in marshes and mangroves. During
winter, migratory birds come down in flock to feed on fish; their low fly-past in perfect formation over
the mangroves and marshes in thousands is a treat to watch.
The mangrove trees along the creek give shelter and protection to various species of invertebrate and vertebrate fauna like mollusk, prawn, insects, fish, birds and mammals. With the noticeable
degeneration of the creek habitat the mangrove population has been under great stress and is
declining. There are many reasons for the decline of this important habitat, including pollution, scarcity of fresh water, oil spilling , hardly any rains and indiscriminate cutting and grazing of trees due to lack of awareness of the value of the resources on the part of local inhabitants along the creek. The loss of mangroves eventually affects the overall fauna and flora associated with the mangrove ecosystem and the biodiversity of the plants and animals dwelling in this region remains under stress. The beach immediately east of the harbour was the scene of a significant oil spillage when the Greek-registered Tasman Spirit ran a ground in August 2003. The environmental impact included large numbers of dead fish and turtles and damage to a key mangrove forest, as well as dozens of people suffering nausea
The species richness of the creeks depends on the combination of hydrological factors (marine or
Fresh water) and biogeography.
In the study of the production of organic matter ion the ocean, it is necessary to find out not only how quickly organic matter is produced, but also how material is distributed. Suitable size of sea water obtains a fairly representative sample of small organisms such as the unicellular algae. Other common planktonic organisms are copepods and ostracopods, crutaeans, cnidrian, mysids, euphausia, polychaet larvae, oikopleura, cynobacteria and comb jellies and copepods are the insects of the sea and are the commonest planktonic animal. Ostracopods though less abundant.
Phytoplankton’s samples were collected from two different stations:
Station # 1(mangrove area) and
Station # 2 (open ocean).
The conclusion drawn from this sampling programme is given in brief in the latter part of this report.
EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE
1)STUDY AREA
Latitude
24.8225
Longitude
66.9797
Altitude (feet)
9
Lat (DMS)
24° 49' 21N
Long (DMS)
66° 58' 47E
Altitude (meters)
2
Environmental Concerns
The area around the harbour includes several mangrove forests which are constantly under threat from human activities. To the east of the port lies Chinna Creek, which covers about 6 km² and is dotted with mangrove islands. To the southwest of the port is another much larger mangrove forest in the bay formed by several islands and Manora breakwater; the river Layari flows into this bay, bringing waste from upstream suburbs.
Data collected during the period of 13TH September, 2007 from two different stations
Station # 1 (mangrove area), time recorded for data collection was 1:14pm
Station # 2 (open ocean), time recorded for data collection was 2:24pm.
This has been used for the preparation of the present report.
DATA COLLECTION
METHODOLOGY:
Hydrography:
The study of the surface waters of the Earth, is the preparation of nautical charts, including charts of ocean depths, currents, internal density field of the ocean, and tides. It usually refers to coverages depicting various water features.
COLLECTION OF PHYTOPLANKTON:
Vertical hauled nets are widely used for integrating estimates of planktons in a water column in general study of biomass, production and biogeography. They have specific requirements for type, speed control and meter blocks.
Typical plankton net is conical in shape.net ring is present anteriorly. Filtering portion is made up of monofilament nylon. To the latter a metal net bucket (cod-end bucket) provided with a stop cock) is tied wit a strong twine.
After the operation of a suitable net for collection of plankton, the net held vertically and washed carefully with flowing sea water so that all the planktons adhering to it are collected at the bottom of the net bucket. Net bucket is then removed and the excess water drained from the catch then the plankton concentrated on the nylon net piece at the end of the bucket is then carefully transferred.
SALANITY
“The total weight in grams of dissolved salts in 1 kilogram of sea water expressed as 0/00 (parts per thousands)”
Although salinity varies quite a bit because of differences in the total amount of dissolved salts, the relative proportion of major constituents are constant.
Refractometer was used to measure salinity.
PH
Ph from (potential of Hydrogen) the logarithm of the reciprocal of hydrogen-ion concentration in gram atoms per liter; provides a measure on a scale
pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. Solutions with a pH less than 7 are considered acidic, while those with a pH greater than seven are considered basic (alkaline). PH 7 is defined as neutral because it is the pH of pure water at 25 °C.
pH meter was used to read the pH concentrations of water.
All these observations were made at each fishing station.
WATER TRANSPARNCY:
Water depth is taken by sacchi dish. To know at what depth light is penetrated in the sea. Sacchi dish, which is circular in shape and white in color and connected to a rope. So we can determine the water transparency by this method by placing the dish in the water and hold the rope, slowly release the rope till the white color of the dish is visible, mark the point and measure the length of the rope.
WATER ANALYSIS:
Winkler’s titration method was also used for oxygen and carbon dioxide estimation from the preserved seawater samples in the laboratory.
OBSERVATIONS :
10 ml of water sample contain following organisms which were observed in the counting tray :-
Station No. 1
Sample colleted at 4 m depth:
ORGANISMS
COUNT
PERCENTAGE
Fish eggs
14
25%
Cynobacteria
35
62.5%
Sea weeds(bundles)
04
7.14%
Oikopluera
01
1.7%
Mysid
01
1.7%
Station No.2
Sample collected at 6 m depth
ORGANISMS:
COUNT
PERCENTAGE
Copepods
84
64.1%
Mysids
05
3.8%
Polychaets larvae
07
5.3%
Zoea
02
1.5%
Ostracods
03
2.29%
Oikopleura
11
8.3%
Cynabacteria
14
10.6%
Diatoms
05
3.8%
SAMPLE ANALYSIS:
S No.
Carbon dioxide
(ppm)
Dissolve
Oxygen
(mg/l)
Salinity
(o/oo)
PH
(mg/l)
Sacchi Depth
(meter)
Station # 1
0.9
0.5
47
8.6
0.5
Station # 2
0.2
0.4
41
8.6
01
DISCUSSION:
Mangrove swamps generally occur in tropical coastal areas which are subject to tidal fluctuations. Ecologically they develop best in estuaries, behind sand bars, and offshore islands as well as in protected bays with shallow water and mud flats.
Mangrove swamps are a source of biological productivity in terms of fisheries, aquaculture and forestry as well as ecosystems of biological diversity, since they function as genetic reservoirs and habitats for migratory waterfowl and marine species.
Mangroves are great assets which need to be considered for preservation when dealing with coastal development. Mangrove swamps should not be seen as useless areas of vegetation to be cut down indiscriminately for agriculture, housing and industrial development but as viable resources to be developed in a suitable manner.
All of the mangrove species have special roots which perform mechanical and aerating functions.
Due to the high productivity in mangrove swamps this environment supports a large number of organisms. Mangrove leaves are the foundation of the food web in coastal swamps and account for 90% of the primary productivity. Direct feeders on the mangrove leaves include crabs (e.g. Fiddler crabs), and other detritus invertebrates. Bacteria also degrade the fallen leaves to produce organic rich detritus, a food source for bottom feeders such as starfish and sea urchins and for suspension feeders (e.g. barnacles, oysters, mussels) and certain sedentary worms and small crustaceans. The last two are in turn food sources for many fishes.
Salinity fluctuates because of the differences in the total amount of dissolve salts .Salinity usually high in mangroves area it is also affected by temperature and steady increase in salinity towards the coast and in to the bays.
GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION:
Important points have been discussed from the graphic representation. Cynobacteria have shown the highest value in station # 1 as compared to other organisms like fish eggs,nostoc,sea weeds etc which indicate that Cyanobacteria have benefited from the rise of the surface water temperature, which has reached 15-17 °C (degrees centigrade) even in the open sea areas. If the weather remains calm, the accumulation of the cyanobacteria to the surface of water will also be likely to continue.
Copepods,have shown the highest value in station # 2 as compared to other organism . Copepod habitats are extremely varied, but the vast majority of species live in the sea. They are mostly planktonic throughout their lives, some occurring only in coastal waters while others live in the open sea. Many frequent only the upper layers to about 650–1000 ft (200–300 m) depth. The role of copepods in the economy of the sea consists mainly of converting plant into animal substance. Many species are adapted to graze directly upon the chief synthesizers of organic material, the microscopic diatoms and dinoflagellates that constitute the great pasturage of the sea. Some species are predatory on other copepods, fish larvae, and other small animals, such as protozoa. Commonly copepods constitute about 70% of the zooplankton, and at times their numbers are so great as to impart a pinkish color to the sea.
