Recently, a large number of dead jelly fish were swept ashore the Astarang-Konark coast, sparking speculations about their safety.
A few months back, bodies of three whale carcasses were found in the area. The death of dolphins in the seacoast is a common phenomenon as well.
Climate change is attributed to this regular phenomenon of mass death of sea creatures. Climate is the main factor, which either favours or disfavours a particular ecological system to grow or perish. These three marine species are the members of shallow sea, bay or gulf etc; where plenty of natural foods are available for them to maintain the food chain of the biological order.
Every ecological or biological order has certain principles to maintain, which are complementary. Jelly fish is a boneless fish and looks more like a transparent umbrella with certain number of tentacles through which this carnivorous fish preys. It is usually found around the corals. Jelly fish usually stings and irritates its preys before hunting. The smaller fishes are paralyzed through stings and then eaten by the jelly fish. Several types of jelly fish are found in the Indian Ocean. The home of this fish is the Andaman Sea, where larger coral reef parks are noticed.
A few years back, such coral parks were noticed in the Gopalpur coast, but due to various injurious industrial activities such biological hubs, the empire vanished. As sources reveal there are 6, 00,000 sq km of forests in the ocean which are equivalent to tropical rain forests of the globe.
These are nothing other than the coral reefs. The coral reefs form the groves of corals having different kinds of trunks, branches and fronds; which are equivalent to trees in a tropical forests supporting incredible varieties of lives. The coral reefs have cracks and crevices which provide habitats varieties of marine creatures. The marine ecological system sustains varieties of lives starting from tiny organisms to discovered and undiscovered atolls.
The atolls are known as circular coral reefs or strings of coral islands. The native name of Maldive Islands is known as Atollon, which is derived from atoll. The atolls are uniquely rich ecosystems. The creation of coral reef is a joint venture of two of the basic life forms of animals and plants.
The animal involved is known as coral-polyp, which comes under the group of jelly fish or anemone. Sea anemone is a flowering plant with in the oceanic conditions of atolls. The jelly fish leads a very wonderful life. When one end of its life system is attached to under water lime stone cover, the other end consists of mouth with tentacles, which makes it able to capture and swallow food. The planktons are the main food of the animal-cum plant creatures.
Our Chilika lagoon and Gopalpur oceanic situations are very ideal conditions for propagation and development of coral reefs and coral parks, but the technologies of propagation of such ecological systems are not known to Forest, Environment and Climate Change Department of the State and Central Governments. Again Chilika is a good site for carrying out an experimental plot of coral reef. The residue aquatic creatures are the main ingredients of formation of lime-stone. The sea-anemones are very sensitive plants -cum animals, which cannot stand other than limestone formation. Jelly fish is available in Chilika and Gopalpur oceanic conditions.
The research and analysis on mass death of jelly fish should be carried out to thrash out the reasons and sources of such mass casualties.
When the jelly fish matures, it becomes female and then it changes into male as it gets older. Such kind of sexual changes with age is very common in case of reef fish. The flora and fauna of ocean are not sufficiently studied and explored by man as yet. Many species among flora and fauna are vanishing due to bad endemic actions of man and for constant mishandling of oceanic bio-diversities for commercial gain.
The great barrier of coral reef is seen in Queensland of Australia, which extends over 2,027 km and covers an area of 207,000 sq km. The reef is so huge that it can be located from the moon. The Australian Government duly and scientifically protected the barrier which now has become a great source of tourism commerce of the country.
Two types of corals are seen in the ocean. One is reef building coral and the other is non reef building coral. The non-reef building corals are found in colder waters. The example is cup-coral. This looks like a cup. The coral reefs grow best within 7 to 20 meters below the surface of the sea in undisturbed water having water temperature between 25 and 29 degree centigrade. The coral reefs are as good as rain forest in the land. They provide shelter and food to the millions of creatures of flora and fauna and also protect the sea-coast from erosion. They are found only in tropical and sub-tropical seas.
The life in the ocean depends mainly on three factors such as sun, water pressure and food, besides oxygen. When sunlight passes through the water body different colours are presented within the water like a rainbow. Each colour has measured capacity to travel within the sea water up to a certain depth. When the red light fades first out of other six colours, the violet light goes deeper within the water body. So the crop composition and the animal composition are certainly variable within the oceanic body due to the variation of sun light in different colours. So far this aspect is not scientifically studied to educate ourselves. The Chilika Development Authorities are getting profuse amount of grant for development work. They have scope to study and analyse the matter of mass casualties of jelly fish and also the pollution level in the ocean.
The mass death of jelly fish should not be skipped like other past incidents of mass death of marine creatures.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)