In the present survey (2007-2008), totally 81
species of seaweeds and 5 species of seagrass (Table - 1)
were recorded from Chidiyatapu, North Bay and Viper
Island, South Andaman. Of these 26 taxa are
Chlorophyceae belonging to 14 genera, 19 taxa are
Phaeophyceae belonging to 10 genera, 32 taxa are
Rhodophyceae belonging to 19 genera, 4 taxa are
Cyanophyceae belonging to 4 genera and 5 taxa are
seagrasses belonging to 4 genera. This survey revealed
that the red algal diversity is more than the other algal
groups, but luxuriance is observed in brown algae,
whereas the Cyanophyceae members were observed in
very less number. In seagrass totally five species were
recorded from this exploration and more numbers were
recorded in Chidiyatapu. Seaweeds were growing
luxuriantly in Chidiyatapu and North Bay, in which 74
and 67 species were recorded but in Viper Island only
nine algal species were recorded.