Water sports enthusiast documents marine life in Mumbai

The next time when you take a walk along the beaches or the rocky shores of South Mumbai remember that not all is lost yet and these areas are still home to some of the rich and diverse marine life, battling to survive despite being under threat from high levels of pollution as per findings of a two-year-old documentation work.

Pradip Patade (47), a resident of Girgaum and a water sports enthusiast, has been on a mission to systematically document the aquatic life on the beaches of South Mumbai from a layman's perspective and soon plans to not only publish a detailed dossier for the common man but also initiate a long term conservation programme for conservation of these aquatic life forms.

In fact, Patade with the support of Dr Rishikesh Dalvi, a marine biologist and assistant professor, department of zoology, Maharshi Dayanand College, Parel and Avinash Kubal, deputy director Maharashtra Nature Park, Patade recently presented his documentation of some of species of aquatic life during the National Conference on 'Wetlands- Present status, ecology and conservation' held at Maharshi Dayanand College.

"It was in 2013 during Ganesh visarjan when around 60 devotees suffered injuries due to stingray at Chowpatty and the whole incident snowballed into a major issue so much so that even the chief minister got involved and called for a detailed report that I was shocked. I started to ponder on why people were behaving so strangely as after all it was a beach and there was bound to be aquatic life. It struck me that people should be told what forms of marine life exists on the beaches and I simply decided to start documenting it," said Patade, who is also a partner in Rae Sports Academy that teaches non-mechanised water sports such as kayaking and windsurfing.

Patade decided that he would concentrate on areas from Cuffe Parade to Girgaum Chowpatty including Walkeshwar, and Priyadarshini Park. "I divided the area into three types based on habitats so the rocky shore was areas of Cuffe Parade to Nariman Point while sandy beach was Girgaon Chowpatty and the last was rocky pool areas. Among these locations and right from the start I decided that I do not want to do a scientific study but simply document things I spot like a common man and since I have been active in Kayaking in the waters around South Mumbai, I am familiar with several aquatic life forms, which made my work easier," he said.

Soon, Patade started making visits to various earmarked zones by walking on the beaches or kayaking close to the rocky shores and was able to document close to 200 aquatic species extremely close to the beaches and rocky shores of south Mumbai and during these trips he managed to photograph and videograph several varieties of invertebrates such as Sponges, Coelenterates including corals, sea fans, sea anemones and jellyfishes, Molluscs including bivalves, Conches including cowries and Cone shells, Octopus and cuttlefish. Apart from this, arthropods including crabs, lobsters, shrimps, barnacles and echinoderms including sea urchins, sea cucumber, feather star, brittle star, and starfish and vertebrates that included seahorses, pipe fish, sharks, rays, groupers, puffer fishes, sergeant fish, and butterfly fishes.

"One of my biggest joy was video recording a family of humped back dolphin in the waters between Governors bungalows and Navy Nagar and along with it managing to find several small and big aquatic species which I never could imagine seeing at the Mumbai coast. I found in shallow waters. It required lots of patience and timing my visits as per the tide, season and clarity of sea water," added Patade, adding that while most of the documentation is done he now wants to begin the work of active conservation starting from getting BMC and other authorities to enforce strict rules to stop the pollution of the sea as well as dumping of garbage in the sea.

Adding that the entire work of documentation was to encourage people to save these beautiful aquatic life forms that still exist in highly polluted and highly urbanised areas and not far off from the coast, Patade says, "Providing a lay person with basic knowledge of diverse marine life may spark off interest among the general public, which may help in conservation efforts. I am not a scientist or a marine researcher but I hope some one with a scientific temperament takes up a detailed scientific study of the marine flora and fauna of Mumbai."

Commenting on the study Dr Rishikesh Dalvi, a marine biologist said, "This documentation will surely help scientists, researchers in many ways. In fact, some of the species documented like star fish, sea urchins and corals were believed to have disappeared from Mumbai's shores that is highly polluted. But, now that we have photograph documentations this should encourage marine conservation."