Pearl oyster culture in Vizhinjam Bay

In India, Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat and Gulf of Mannar in Tamil Nadu are well known areas for pearl oyster resources. Hornell (1922) gave the history of pearl fishery of Gulf of Mannar in detail. Alagarswami (1970, 1975) and Alagarswami and Qasim (1973) have dealt with the distribution of pearl oysters in India, exploitation, farming methods and technology of culture of pearls. Mahadevan and Nayar (1973) reviewed Indian pearl fishery resources and identified Pinctada fucata as the common Indian pearl oyster from Gulf of Mannar and Gulf of Kutch. Rao and Rao (1974) have identified six important species of pearl oysters from Indian Coasts. Preliminary idea of pearl oyster resources from Gulf of Kutch is from Hornell's work (1909). Later Easwaran et al. (1968) described the present status of pearl fishery in Gulf of Kutch and Pandya (1974) gave pearl oyster fishery and culture experiments in Gujarat