Fish biodiversity, catch composition, distribution pattern of fishes in Wular Lake and their conservational measures for sustainable fish production

Abstract

Wular Lake is one of the largest fresh water lakes of Asia. It plays a significant role in the hydrographic system of Kashmir valley and acts as a huge absorption basin for the annual flood waters. Wular with its extensive surrounding marshes is the natural habitat for wild life. The present study was carried out for a period of twelve months from October 2017 to September 2018 at five different sites of the Wular Lake, Kashmir. A total of eight species of fishes were collected from the lake which include Cyprinus carpio var. communis (Punjaeb Gad), Cyprinus carpio var. specularis (Punjaeb Gad), Carassius carassius (Gang Gad), Schizothorax niger (Ale gad), Schizothorax esocinus (Churru), Schizothorax curvifrons (Satter Gad), Crossocheilus diplocheilus (Tethur), Triplophysa spp. (Ara Gurun) and Puntius conchonius (Techal Gad). However, among these eight species only five species are of commercial importance in the Lake namely; C. c. var. communis, C. c. var. specularis, C. carassius, S. Niger, S. esocinus and S. curvifrons. The dominant species in all the five sites of the Wular Lake was Cyprinus carpio var. communis and contributed 39.52% by biomass and 34.01% by number followed by Cyprinus carpio var. specularis which contributed 30.57% by biomass and 27.83% by number. Carassius carassius contributed 5.85% by biomass and 6.1% by number. Maximum catch composition (by biomass) was recorded in the month of June from Site 4 i.e Watlab and minimum in the month of January from Site 5 i.e Sopore Ghat.