Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India

Population eruption of sunset shell Siliqua radiata (Linnaeus, 1758) along Versova beach in Mumbai

Volume 52 Issue 1

Sujit Sundaram, V. D. Deshmukh and S. G. Raje

Abstract

Sudden population eruption of Siliqua radiata during monsoon months (June-August 2008) was observed along Versova beach in Mumbai. Relationship between shell length (SL) and total weight( TW) was TW = 0.0001137 * SL 2.67922, shell length (SL) and meat weight (MW) was MW = 0.0000237 * SL 2.91756. S. radiata had isometric growth. The average density was estimated as 14 per square meter and the biomass was 153 g.m-2. The proportion of meat was 60%. Analysis of meat showed high amount of heavy metals namely copper, cadmium and arsenic.

Keywords

Sunset shell, Siliqua radiata, heavy metal, Mumbai

Date : 20-09-2010