ESTUARIES

Estuaries are part of this natural environment, which is greatly exploited. The estuaries and coastal waters are dynamic and are more productive because of the monsoon rains and enormous quantities of nutrients transported by floods. Hence several varieties of finfish, prawns, crabs, lobsters, stomatopods, clams mussels and oysters of commercial significance have been identified from this environment, which provided good breeding grounds. The estuaries are thus playing a vital role in the renewing of marine resources. In India 1.5 million ha of brackish water has been identified. In Kanyakumari District nearly 1000 ha of estuarine environment could be identified as potential for fisheries resources.
There are three important riverine ecosystems, which confluence with Arabian Sea. They are;
1. Thengapattinam estuary, formed by the confluence of river Tampirabarani in between Thengapattinam and Eraiummanthurai.
2. Valliyar estuary formed by the river Valloiyar near Kadiapattinam.
3. Manakudy estuary formed by the confluence of river Pazhayar in between East and West Manakudy villages.
Apart from these are two minor estuaries also: they are
· Pambar estuary near Colachel and
· Pantri estuary near Rajakkamangalam. These are formed by the drainage canal excess water during monsoon and the water drained from the irrigational fields mixing with sea.