Species Diversity, Abundance, Distribution and Length Weight Relationship of Groupers (Family: Serranidae) in the Red Sea, Egypt

El Ganainy Et Al., Azza A.

doi:10.21608/ejabf.2023.305588

Species Diversity, Abundance, Distribution and Length Weight Relationship of Groupers (Family: Serranidae) in the Red Sea, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Azza A. El Ganainy et al.

10.21608/ejabf.2023.305588

Abstract

Groupers are valuable targets for artisanal and recreational fisheries in the Red Sea. The present study aimed to create for the first time a grouper database, including information on species composition, abundance distribution, and length-weight relationships of grouper species from the Red Sea. Twenty grouper species were collected from three investigated sites; namely, Hurghada (site II) where landings showed the most diversity with 18 species, Shalateen (site III) which yielded 16 species, and El Tur (site I), the site with the least number of species (only 4 grouper species). The highest abundance of grouper individuals was recorded in Shalateen (49%), followed by Hurghada (35%) and El Tur (16%). The collected grouper species belonged to six genera: Epinephelus, Cephalopholis, Anyperodon, Plectropomus, Aethaloperca and Variola. The genus Epinephelus was the most specious in the samples, with 10 species, while the genera Cephalopholis and Plectropomus were represented by 5 and 2 species, respectively, while Anyperodon, Aethaloperca and Variola were detected with one species. According to IUCN, three species in the Red Sea have been declared vulnerable. In this study, data on the length-weight relationship (LWR) was presented for the most abundant species (15 grouper species). For 10 of the 15 species, it is the first estimate of LWR parameters in the Red Sea.

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