The next time you want to
savour a spiced, crunchy fried
mussel or fancy some coconut-
laced clam curry while lounging
in a Goan beach shack, you
might have to really try your luck! Recently, the Goa Forest and
Environment Ministry ordered a
probe into the death of
thousands of clams at Velim, a
coastal village in South Goa,
one of the few places along the state's coastline, where the
molluscs have been surfacing
for decades now. According to experts, the
existence of Goa's shellfish is
being threatened by water
pollution caused over the years
by mining and the increasing
discharge of toxins into the state's main rivers, Mandovi in
north Goa and the Zuari towards
the south. The clam deaths
come as yet another blow to the
state's traditional fish-loving
population, which is already reeling under high prices on
account of severe shortages in
the fish catch over the last few
months. Activist Clifton D'Souza was
one of the few people who saw
the stretch of dead clams which
lay open, with sandy grime in
their cavity, instead of the
sought after edible tissue. He claims that the discharge of raw
sewage into the Sal river is the
reason for the carnage. Environment Minister Alina
Saldanha, who had earlier
dispatched a team of the Goa
State Biodiversity Board
(GSBB) to inspect the site and
interact with the locals, has now ordered a detailed investigation
with the help of the National
Institute of Oceanography
(NIO), a central marine
research institute located in
Goa. "This mysterious episode of
clam deaths will need detailed
investigation to determine the
true causes," she said earlier
this week. According to a preliminary
investigation conducted by the
State Environment Ministry, the
deaths could have been caused
by a shell pathogen, shell fish
toxin accumulated through filter feeding, stress induced
mortality caused by hypoxia/
anoxia, a very high biological
oxygen demand in the lower
water strata close to the
sediment or salinity. Local fishermen have been
claiming over two months that
there were recurring instances
of clams coming up dead. One
of Goa's top marine scientists,
Baban Ingole, claims that the beach state, well known for its
sea-food, may soon have to bid
goodbye to its mussels if it did
not take steps quick enough. "The mussel seed in the Vasco
bay area is seriously depleting.

Very soon Goa will not have
any mussels. Most of them
which are sold in Goa are from
outside the state any way," he warned during an Environment
Day function earlier this month. Ingole, who works for the NIO,
was also the first one to warn
the state of a possible fish
famine due to pollution and
overfishing to feed the state's
ever growing in-bound tourism. Subsequently, in the last couple
of years, scientists have also
been churning out research
about how mining silt
accumulated over the years and
pollution are squelching Goa's shellfish population. One of them was Padma
Bhushan awardee and Ecologist
Madhav Gadgil, who has
spearheaded a couple of major
studies in Goa and the Western
Ghats. He blamed the loss of fish and shellfish productivity in
Goa to three key factors:
"Turbidity in water, increased
sedimentation and oil, iron and
manganese pollution." A similar sentiment is echoed in
an NIO study, authored by a
team of Indian and Chinese
researchers, who examined
both the major rivers. The study
which was released last year, blames "abundant" spillage from
the ferrying of iron ore in river
barges as one of the causes for
river pollution. "Since ore handling - loading in
barges, transporting and
reloading at the port or mid-
stream in giant ships - is done in
an open system there is
abundant spilled-over ore material into the estuaries (of
the two rivers)," the study said. "Shipbuilding industries on the
shores of both rivers may have
contributed to the trace metals,"
the study further stated, adding
that in some areas in the two
rivers, pollution had reached "significant" levels.

Post Reply

Posted: at 5-03-2016 12:46 PM (8 years ago) | Hero

Hmmmmmmmm

Posted: at 6-03-2016 12:24 AM (8 years ago) | Addicted Hero

poster all the post are too long ooh
please shorten them

Posted: at 6-03-2016 01:28 PM (8 years ago) | Hero

Poster,,u sure say u da read dis post b4 u post am?

Posted: at 14-03-2016 12:48 AM (8 years ago) | Hero

Y'ALL BETTER be careful, be very very careful, CAREFULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL...

Posted: at 29-06-2016 09:38 PM (7 years ago) | Hero

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