A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF SEAWEEDS FROM THE COAST OF MAKRAN, PAKISTAN

The present study describes the mode of occurrence, nature of habitat and geographic distribution of seaweeds along a 160 km coastal area of Pakistan, not surveyed before. The study lists 61 genera and 99 speci es distributed among 24 orders and 5 divisions, collected from Kapper, Sur, Sur Bunder, Gwader, Pishukan, Ganz and Jiwani during 1990-1995. These are the first published records from the coast of Makran divisio n, while 67 species are new records for the coast of Balochistan provi nce, of which 15 species are new records for the coast of Pakistan as a whole. The genera, Melanothamnus Bornet et Falkenberg and Nizamuddin ia Silva are being reported for the first time from the coast of Pakis tan.