Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

STUDY ON THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF RED SEAWEED GRACILARIA CORTICATA THROUGH DIFFERENT CULTIVATION METHODS OF OKHA PORT, GUAJRAT, INDIA

Kirtankumar V. Tandel, Nilesh H. Joshi, Gauravkumar M. Tandel, M.R. Patel and Jitendrakumar T. Tandel

Abstract

The west coast of India (Okha Port, Guajart) harbors several habitats with floristic, faunal and climatic peculiarities, which provides plenty of reasons to study the characteristics of existing seaweed biodiversity. With this aim, the present study was conducted to measure the growth performance of red seaweed Gracilaria corticata through different cultivation methods viz. raft culture method, polythene culture method, long line culture method during October 2013 to April 2014 (total 90 days) of Okha Port, Guajrat, India. The growth performance was measured in two different seasons -winter and summer. Highest mean growth of G. corticata for season- 1(October- December) at 90 days was 1058 ± 63.82 g. FW observed in raft culture method, while the lowest 945.6 ± 44.88 g. FW observed in polythene bag method. On the same way highest growth in season-2 were also demonstrated by raft method (1248 ± 80.75 g. FW), while lowest by long line method (1061.78 ± 129.03). The growth performance of season-2 was significantly higher than the growth of season-1. This result reveled the significance of different cultivation method over difference period of time for G. corticata Growth.