The Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System (COMAPS) programme is being implemented since the year 1990-91. The investigations are made by the 11 institutions at about 82 locations in the 0 - 25 km transects from the coast to the sea. The data collected so far has indicated that in the sea off 2 km from the coast is clean, except in the case of Bombay, where the sea beyond 5 km is clean. The observations were continued during the year 1999-2000 and the results obtained have confirmed these earlier findings with isolated variations. These are:

a. Along the coast of Gujarat, the Alang, which is the ship-breaking yard, showed stress conditions with high levels of suspended solids and petroleum hydrocarbons in the water. The Dissolved Oxygen (DO) values near the coast of Porbandar (less than 2 km) continued to be lower, due to the discharge of effluents from the nearby industries. Further, the Veraval harbour, which was listed as area of concern, continued to remain with the deteriorated water quality with low to nil levels of oxygen during the low tide period.

b. Along the coast of Maharashtra, Thane, Versova and Mahim creeks indicated no improvement in the environment quality and the observations of low to nil levels of oxygen during the low tide period was similar to that of previous years. The concentration of heavy metals like copper and mercury were reported to be high in Ulhas estuary.

c. Along the coast of Karnataka, the waters to the close of the Mangalore continued to show high levels of heterotrophic bacteria, particularly streptococcus faecal and coliforms, due to discharge of untreated domestic wastes.

d. Along the cost of Kerala, the Veli, which receives effluents from Trivandrum Titanium Plant, continued to exhibit high acidity with no flora and fauna be present around the point of discharge of effluents. Neendakara also continued to exhibit relatively increased levels of petroleum hydrocarbons. The near shore waters of Paravur, Neendakara and Cochin had higher counts of Streptococcus faecali, due to discharge of municipal wastes.

e. Along the coast of Tamil Nadu, all the stations showed good levels of DO, except lightly lower levels of DO (about 15%) in the sea off Chennai Port.

f. Along the coast of Andhra Pradesh, the Visakhpatnam harbour and Kakinada canal continued to be of concern areas. Due to influx of domestic sewage into the harbour, high levels of nutrients were noticed. The other areas remain to be clean.

g. The Orissa and West Bengal coasts did not exhibit any signs of pollution. The near shore waters of Puri, which showed high levels of bacteria, due to direct disposal of municipal sewage, has shown increased concentration of DO and decreased ammonia, indicating the signs of recovery. This has been mainly possible, due to the treatment of wastes, which are being disposed off into the sea.

h. Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands continued to show clean water quality, except in the harbour waters of Port Blair, where slightly higher concentration of dissolved petroleum hydrocarbons were noticed.