The move, the forest department said, will boost livelihood options for the local communities.
The Mangrove Protection Cell of the state forest department has identified eight locations along coastal Maharashtra — three in Sindhudurg district and five in Ratnagiri district — which have the potential for coastal tide pool tourism as a livelihood option for the local communities.
The places the department identified in Sindhudurg are Tambeldeg, Kunkeshwar and Bhogwe while in Ratnagiri it has identified Katghar, Hedvi, Kharviwada, Velas and Velneshwar as probable locations.
The intertidal zone of rocky coasts is home to some amazing formations, including intertidal rock pools (also known as tide pools), which serve as microhabitats for numerous coastal creatures. The rocky coast has the highest density of macroorganisms compared to other intertidal shores, as well as the greatest diversity of animal and plant species. Numerous marine creatures use the tide pools as refuge, food sources and nursery grounds, a press note of the state mangrove protection cell said.
The locations were identified after the Mangrove and Marine Biodiversity Conservation Foundation of Maharashtra funded a study by the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) under its Small Grants Programme.
The study — Documentation of fauna from tide pool ecosystems along the Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg Coast, Maharashtra — was led by Goldin Quadros, Shirish Manchi and Siddhesh Bhave. “The study found a wide range of sea creatures with 303 coastal species across these rocky tide pools. This included 30 seaweed and algae species, 80 phytoplankton species, 73 zooplankton species, 90 species of megafauna, both vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles and fishes) and invertebrates (crustaceans, echinoderms, annelids, amphipods among others), as well as 30 bird species, across the two coastal Konkan districts covering 288 km,” a statement from the department read.