Charting Biodiversity in a Transforming Urban Seascape – A Multidisciplinary Approach

The marine intertidal zone is a relatively poorly-known wildlife habitat in India. Sound management and responsible utilisation of this space remains hindered partly by a dearth of data that can help evaluate its ecological significance. In 2017, we initiated a citizen-driven effort to collect biodiversity data from Mumbai’s intertidal habitats.

The project has served to document previously unrecorded and ‘lost’ species from the region as well as correctly identify some species misidentified in previously published literature. The project remains open-ended in terms of data access and use, and has so far seen significant use as a source of biodiversity records in research papers, legal reports and publications. We are now refining this model to expand it to data-deficient intertidal regions outside our present limits of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, whilst also utilising our public dataset to answer specific ecological questions to aid better management of these areas.

About the Speakers:
In 2019, Shaunak Modi along with Pradip Patade co-founded the Coastal Conservation Foundation with the goal to increase awareness and understanding of coastal and marine ecosystems and the diverse range of species that inhabit them. initiate marine research into the largely overlooked marine environs of mainland India.

Shaunak is currently undertaking research on the coastal cetaceans of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, to understand their distribution and how anthropogenic pressures across the waters are impacting these populations. He also manages the citizen science aspects of the Marine Life of Mumbai and Intertidal Biodiversity of India projects.

Pradip Patade’s life has revolved around the flowing and ebbing of the tide – first as a sailor, a watersports instructor and finally as a chronicler of the city’s coastline. In 2017 Pradip co-founded the Marine Life of Mumbai, in an effort to document the intertidal marine biodiversity on our shores. Today, he continues exploring the shores of Mumbai every time the tide goes out.