Some morphometric and meristic parameters of the Moroccan Atlantic anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus (Linnaeus, 1758)

This study was conducted to investigate some morphometric and meristic parameters of anchovies Engraulis encrasicolus caught in the Moroccan Atlantic coast. The fish samples were monthly collected from commercial catches between January to May 2017. 344 individuals were collected from the principal ports of the Moroccan Atlantic Ocean, with significant climatic changes and different geographical situations. The ports under study are: Larach, Assilah, Casablanca, Agadir, and Laâyoune. To study the possibility of local disparity, two nearby ports were chosen, Larach and Assilah, with a distance of less than 50 km. An abundance of females was observed for all samples, with a maximum total length of 144 mm. Twenty-two morphometric characters were measured, and four meristic characters were counted for every individual. The correlation test results showed a strong correlation between the total length and the other morphological characters, except those related to the head of the individuals. A significant difference was found for all variables concerning the three factors: age, sex and port. After studying the variation of individuals with the port factor, all the samples overlap, so we couldn’t distinguish a different group along the two axes. These results are consistent with the meristic study results. Comparing our results with those of other researchers, it appears that the morphological variation found is mainly related to environmental changes.