Managing the Marine Environment to Meet Future Challenges

The ocean covers about seventy percent of the planet. The ocean provides many economic activities that include fisheries, tourism, and marine transport. Two-thirds of the value of all natural services is in the world is provided by the ocean. Fisheries related activities alone support the livelihood of approximately 200 million people in the world. As an island Sri Lanka is heavily depend on the ocean for economic development and food security. The coastal zone contains 62% of the industries and 70% of infrastructure related to tourism. Sri Lanka has a coastline of about 1620 km. The continental shelf covers about 30,000 km2. It is relatively narrow, averaging 22.5 km, width and the mean depth is approximately 75 m. The exclusive economic zone is about 517,000 km2. The marine environment around the country is governed by the northeast and southwest monsoons. The tidal range is low; the maximum spring tide is less than 1 m.The country is endowed with highly productive marine ecosystems; mangroves, sea grass meadows and coral reefs. In addition there are many coastal wetlands including salt marshes. The majority of mangroves are associated with coastal lagoons and the sea grass meadows are in the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay where the sea is relatively shallow and calm. Coral reefs occur around the island with the largest shallow-water coral banks in the Gulf of Mannar. There are 40 species of mangrove and mangrove associated plants, 15 species of sea grasses and 208 species of corals recorded for Sri Lanka. There may be more than 1500 species of marine fish in Sri Lanka’s marine waters. The charismatic marine mega fauna include 5 species of sea turtles and twenty eight species of marine mammals. Although some groups have been studied relatively well, there is a general lack of information on marine biodiversity, especially the marine invertebrates.Sri Lanka depends heavily on marine resources both in coastal and offshore areas. Fishing is main economic activity supporting nearly 1.25 million people. The coastal waters provide about 65% of the marine fish production. Extraction of hydrocarbons may become one of the most important economic activities in the future. The marine environment around the country is heavily influenced by human activities including unsustainable resource exploitation and the use of destructive fishing methods. It is widely accepted that the coastal waters have been overfished as the populations of many large fish species have been reduced drastically. Many land-based activities have contributed to high levels of pollution in the coastal environment. Poor garbage disposal, agricultural runoff and industrial and domestic waste have polluted several coastal lagoons, beaches and inshore waters. More recently Sri Lanka has experienced negative impacts of global warming and climate change. Coral reefs have indicated this rapid environmental change through extensive coral bleaching events. Sri Lanka lost much of its shallow water coral reefs in 1998 during the unprecedented coral bleaching event in the Indian Ocean. A similar bleaching event has occurred in 2016 where many shallow water corals have been affected. However, adaptive management is lacking in Sri Lanka. Although several marine protected areas and fisheries management areas have been established, there is little or no management of human activities in these declared areas. In general there is a lack of implementation of laws and regulations which result in the continuous degradation of the marine environment.Keywords: Marine environment, Coastal, Resources, Managemen

The effects of the 2004 Tsunami on mainland India and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Mortality from the tsunamis was high, with more than 7,000 deaths in the Nicobar group alone (the final number may never be known as many indigenous people on remote islands may have perished). On the mainland, there were a similar number of fatalities ; The greatest losses were in fishing communities although the waves destroyed roads, jetties, other basic infrastructure and entire villages; There was major damage to the coastal resources of southeast India, particularly to mangrove and coastal forests. On the Andaman and Nicobar Islands there was considerable damage to the coral reefs and beaches, as well as the forests; The earthquakes changed the bathymetry of the coral reefs and coasts of the Andaman and Nicobars: reefs in the South Andamans to the Nicobars subsided by 1 - 3 metres; many reefs in the northern Andamans were uplifted out of the water and died; and some beaches have almost disappeared, while new beaches have formed; There was major damage to large areas of coral reefs of the Andamans and Nicobars, particularly due to debris being washed off the land and smothering by sediments; Mainland coral reefs in the Gulf of Mannar and elsewhere suffered very minor, localised damage. Many mainland beaches were seriously eroded; and The affected reefs are expected to recover within 5-10 years, if there is effective resource management and enforcement of legislation controlling destructive fishing, coral mining, over-harvesting of reef resources, coastal development, sedimentation and pollution

Evaluating the potential for transboundary management of marine biodiversity in the Western Indian Ocean

The economic and socio-political interactions between countries can have major impacts on transboundary conservation decisions and outcomes. Here, we examined for 14 Western Indian Ocean (WIO) continental and island nations the extent of their marine coral reef species, fisheries and marine protected areas (MPAs), in the context of their geopolitical and socio-economic connections. We also examined the role of external countries and organisations in collaboration within the region. We found large variation between the different countries in their protected area size, and management, which result from different interests in establishing the MPAs, ranging from fisheries management, biodiversity conservation to asserting sovereignty claims. Seventy-four per cent of the 154 MPAs in the region belong to island nations; however, the largest MPAs in the WIO were established by European powers, and include Mayotte and Glorioso Islands (France) and Chagos (UK). While the majority of MPAs are managed by individual countries, between-country collaboration within and outside the region is key if the aim is to achieve effective conservation of ecosystems and species across the island and mainland nations in the region. This may be advanced by creating transboundary MPAs and by regional conservation investment by external powers that benefit from the region’s resources

Anthropogenic nitrogen pollution threats and challenges to the health of South Asian coral reefs

Nitrogen pollution is a widespread and growing problem in the coastal waters of South Asia yet the ecological impacts on the region’s coral ecosystems are currently poorly known and understood. South Asia hosts just under 7% of global coral reef coverage but has experienced significant and widespread coral loss in recent decades. The extent to which this coral ecosystem decline at the regional scale can be attributed to the multiple threats posed by nitrogen pollution has been largely overlooked in the literature. Here, we assess the evidence for nitrogen pollution impacts on corals in the central Indian Ocean waters of India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. We find that there is currently limited evidence with which to clearly demonstrate widespread impacts on coral reefs from nitrogen pollution, including from its interactions with other stressors such as seawater warming. However, this does not prove there are no significant impacts, but rather it reflects the paucity of appropriate observations and related understanding of the range of potential impacts of nitrogen pollution at individual, species and ecosystem levels. This situation presents significant research, management and conservation challenges given the wide acceptance that such pollution is problematic. Following from this, we recommend more systematic collection and sharing of robust observations, modelling and experimentation to provide the baseline on which to base prescient pollution control action

Determinants of leptospirosis in Sri Lanka: Study Protocol

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Leptospirosis is becoming a major public health threat in Sri Lanka as well as in other countries. We designed a case control study to determine the factors associated with local transmission of leptospirosis in Sri Lanka, in order to identify major modifiable determinants of leptospirosis. The purpose of this paper is to describe the study protocol in detail prior to the publishing of the study results, so that the readership will be able to understand and interpret the study results effectively.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A hospital based partially matched case control design is proposed. The study will be conducted in three selected leptospirosis endemic districts in central Sri Lanka. Case selection will include screening all acute fever patients admitted to selected wards to select probable cases of leptospirosis and case confirmation using an array of standard laboratory criteria. Age and sex matched group of acute fever patients with other confirmed diagnosis will be used as controls. Case to control ratio will be 1:2. A minimum sample of 144 cases is required to detect 20% exposure with 95% two sided confidence level and 80% power. A pre tested interviewer administered structured questionnaire will be used to collect data from participants. Variables included in the proposed study will be evaluated using conceptual hierarch of variables in three levels; Exposure variables as proximal; reservoir and environmental variables as intermediate; socio-demographic variables as distal. This conceptual hierarch hypothesised that the distal and intermediate variables are mediated through the proximal variables but not directly. A logistic regression model will be used to analyse the probable determinants of leptospirosis. This model will evaluate the effect of same level and upper level variables on the outcome leptospirosis, using three blocks.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The present national control programme of leptospirosis is hampered by lack of baseline data on leptospirosis disease transmission. The present study will be able to provide these essential information for formulation of better control strategies.</p