Biodiversity and Abundance of Various Fish Species of the Ennore Creek Tamil Nadu, India

Background: The estimated biodiversity indices showed spatial and temporal variations in the biodiversity of finfish and shellfish among the three stations of Ennore Creek, from September 2018 to August 2019 and from September 2022 to August 2023 at fortnightly intervals. Methods: A total of three sampling sites (S1, S2 and S3) were chosen in Ennore Creek for the present research. Occurrence data of finfish and shellfish species caught using gill nets were collected at the three selected sites of Ennore Creek. PRIMER v7 (Plymouth Routines in Multivariate Ecological Research), a statistical software tool created at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the United Kingdom (Clarke and Gorley, 2006) was used. Result: The findings showed that within the study area, there were more species, higher abundances, larger individuals and a higher percentage of Least Concern (77.6%), Not Evaluated (16.3%) and Data Deficient (6.1%). For every species of shellfish that has been documented, the IUCN classification is 100% not evaluated. But there are very few species of shellfish and finfish. Significant variations in fish abundance were found when the mean abundance of vulnerable, endangered and least concerned species for the assessed, unprotected areas were analysed.