Status of Coral Reef Species at Chabahar Bay, Sistan and Baluchistan, Iran

Abstract

This study was carried out in the coral growing zone at Chabahar Bay where it located at 25 degrees 17' N and 60 degrees 36'E. It is called horseshoe Bay, because of its semicircle shape. Some destroyer factors have been affected on the health of coral reefs in Chabahar Bay. Port constructions, dredging operations, spearfishing, anchorages and scuba diving activities were distinguished as the most important problems of coral reef in Chabahar Bay. This study was conducted in order to access Semi-Qualitative Indexes of corals in different areas of Chabahar Bay. Five stations were chosen in east and north part of the Bay, where the most construction activities happened. Rectangular Transect and CoralWatch Racket were used to determine the status of the corals. During study, two classes of Hexacoralia and Octocoralia with 15 families were recorded. Twenty one species of hard coral and 10 species of soft coral were recorded. Hexacoralia was recorded the higher number of family with 10 families and 21 species and Octocoralia was recorded the lower with 5 families and 10 species. Hard corals were dominant. The ranges of qualitative indexes showed, of five stations, three of them (stations 2, 4, 5) showed Good Development and two stations (stations 1, 3) showed Fair Development. For the Condition Index, two stations showed Good Condition (stations 1, 5) and two stations showed Fair Condition (stations 2, 3). Only station 4 showed Poor Condition. The ranges of the Succession Index Showed, four stations (stations 1, 2, 3, 4) were in Very poor Succession and one station (stations 5) showed Poor Succession.