page_title: Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park
section_title: Flora and fauna
hierarchical_section_title: Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park / Flora and fauna
caption_attribution_description: Chelonia mydas العربية: السلحفاة الخضراء في مياه جزيرة هاواي (و م أ) English: Green turtle (Chelonia mydas), Hawai'i, USA. Français&#160;: Tortue verte dans les eaux de l'île d'Hawaï (USA) Deutsch: schwimmende Suppenschildkröte (Chelonia mydas) bei Hawaii, USA Suomi: Liemikilpikonna Havaijilla, Yhdysvalloissa. 日本語: アオウミガメ（USA、ハワイ） Português: Tartaruga-verde, Havai, EUA. Română: Ţestoasa verde (Chelonia mydas), Hawaii, SUA. Svenska: Grön havssköldpadda (Chelonia mydas) utanför Hawaii, USA. Kiswahili: Kobe kijani, Hawaii, Marekani Türkçe: Yeşil kaplumbağa Hawaii ABD 中文（简体）‎: 绿蠵龟（Chelonia mydas），摄于美国夏威夷。 中文（繁體）‎: 綠蠵龜（Chelonia mydas），攝於美國夏威夷。
context_page_description: The Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park is a protected area of India consisting of 21 small islands and adjacent coral reefs in the Gulf of Mannar in the Indian Ocean. It lies 1 to 10 km away from the east coast of Tamil Nadu, India for 160 km between Thoothukudi and Dhanushkodi. It is the core area of the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve which includes a 10 km buffer zone around the park, including the populated coastal area. The park has a high diversity of plants and animals in its marine, intertidal and near shore habitats. Public access inside the park is limited to glass-bottom boat rides.
context_section_description: The park includes estuaries, mudflats, beaches and forests of the near shore environment. It also includes marine components such as coral reefs, seaweed communities, sea grasses, salt marshes and mangroves. Seaweed photo gallery
  Flora – Mangroves dominate the intertidal zones of the park islands. They consist of species of the genera Rhizophora, Avicennia, Bruguiera, Ceriops and Lumnitzera. Mangroves: photo gallery. The introduced tree genus Prosopis is dominant on land in all the islands. The flowering herb Pemphis acidula (family Lythraceae) is the only endemic plant species. 12 species of sea grass and 147 species of seaweeds were recorded. This vegetation provides important feeding grounds for the vulnerable marine mammal, the dugong, endangered green turtles and vulnerable olive ridley turtles. Sea grasses: photo gallery
  Fauna
  Vertebrates
  The dugong, a vulnerable marine mammal, is the flagship mammal of the park. It is an important habitat for the cetaceans: Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, finless porpoise, spinner dolphin, common dolphin, Risso's dolphin, melon-headed whale, and dwarf sperm whale. Larger whales include sperm whale, minke whale, Bryde's whale, sei whale, and critically endangered species including humpback whale, fin whale, and blue whale.
  About 510 (23%) of the 2,200 fin fish species in Indian waters are found in the Gulf, making it the most highly diverse fish habitat in India. Coral associated ornamental fishes of the family Chaetodontidae (butterfly fish), parrotfish, Amphiprion spp. (clown fish), Holocentrus spp. (squirrel fish), Scarus spp. (parrot fish), Lutjanus spp. (snappers) and Abudefduf saxatilis (sergeant major) are abundant.
  A unique endemic species of Balanoglossus – Ptychodera fluva, a living fossil that links invertebrates and vertebrates, has been recorded only at Kurusadai.
  Invertebrates
  Four species each of shrimp and lobster, 106 species of crab, 17 species of sea cucumber,  and 466 species of mollusc including 271 gastropods, 174 bivalves, 5 polyplacophorans, 16 cephalopods and 5 scaphopods,  108 species of sponge, and 100 species of echinoderm occur in the Gulf.
  The coral fauna includes 106 species from 30 genus of hermatypes and 11 species from 10 genus of ahermatypes, including 13 new species, giving a total of 117 species from 14 families and 40 genus. The reefs in this area are narrow fringing reefs located 150 to 300 m. from the shore of the islands and patch reefs rising up from depths of 2 to 9 m. and extending up to 2 km. long and 50 m. wide. Large areas of these reefs are in generally poor condition due to destructive human activities of the 150,000 persons living along the coast. Nutrient and other pollution loads are high due to agriculture, deforestation, industry, urbanization and septic pollution. It appears that the coral reefs of the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park seem to be healthy and in good condition, despite high rates of sedimentation and other threats. However, live coral cover is only about 35%. Various algae cover much of the dead coral.
  Stony coral species of families Poritidae and Faviidae constitute the dominant reef builders here. Coral reefs near some of the islands have been heavily damaged by exploitation as raw materials for industrial ventures such as cement industries, brick manufacture, masonry work and lime kilns. Though legal quarrying of the reefs is now stopped, up to 250 m³/day of reef were destroyed for many years.
caption: Green turtle
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-U60", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:05:22 12:27:51", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Image ExifOffset": "296", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "830", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8563", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:04:04 12:45:09", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:04:04 12:45:09", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "D65", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1632", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1224", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "704", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}