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A 1 September 2026 Mongabay India report examined the large-scale wild harvesting of polychaete (bristle) worms to feed India's shrimp hatcheries.
Over 200 registered hatcheries on India's east coast need an estimated 400 kg of live polychaetes a day.
Collectors are paid Rs 500-800 a kg while hatcheries pay Rs 3,500-4,000 a kg.
Polychaetes are marine annelids: 13,148 valid species are recognised globally and a 2020 checklist listed 727 marine annelid species from India.
A team at Annamalai University has patented controlled-aquaculture technology for the native species Perinereis nuntia.
Polychaetes tolerate a wide range of conditions but respond sharply to pollution and disturbance, so the mix of species in a sediment sample changes predictably as water quality falls. Counting who survives is cheaper than continuous chemical monitoring.
Simple Analogy: A canary in a coal mine, except the canary lives in the mud and never leaves.
Coastal and marine research institute whose scientists work on Indian polychaete diversity
CSIR laboratory contributing to marine annelid research
Its team, led by Perumal Murugesan, has patented controlled-aquaculture technology for the native polychaete Perinereis nuntia and is testing it with hatcheries
GS Paper 3 > Conservation, environmental pollution and biodiversity; GS Paper 1 > Resources and the blue economy
General Science > Biology - animal classification
A class of the phylum Annelida, the bristle worms, whose segments bear parapodia tipped with chaetae; the largest marine group of segmented worms.
Paired fleshy, leg-like outgrowths on each polychaete segment, carrying bristles and used for crawling, swimming and burrowing.
An organism that feeds on decomposing organic matter; polychaetes in this role recycle nutrients and aerate sea-bed sediment.