First Record of Pomacanthus imperator (Bloch, 1787) from Turkish Marine Waters

Cemal TURAN,Deniz ERGUDEN,Burcu ATAY,Mevlut GURLEK

doi:10.28978/nesciences.646202

Abstract

A single specimen of Pomacanthus imperator (312 mm in total length and 1020 g in weight) was caught by a spear at a depth of 10 m on 28 April 2019 from Iskenderun Bay (Konacık, Arsuz coast), Turkey. All measurements, counts, morphological description and colors of P. imperator specimen caught agree with the previous descriptions for this species. In this paper, the occurence of P. imperator is reported for the first time from Iskenderun Bay in Turkish Marine waters. This species is probably a Red Sea immigrant entered into the Mediterranean Sea through Suez Canal.&nbsp;

Highlights

Diplodus vulgaris (Geoffroy, 1817) and Diplodus sargus (Linnaeus, 1758) are commercially important species (Beltrano et al, 2003; Gonçalves et al, 2003) which are targeted by the recreational fishery (Agius Darmanin & Vella, 2018) in the Mediterranean Sea
Since age and growth within a species can vary across geographic distribution (Law & Mitcheson, 2018), this study aims to identify the length weight relationship, age structure and body condition parameters which are essential for stock assessment off the Maltese Islands while contrasting the data with studies in other areas of the Mediterranean which may be used in the development of a management strategy
The was no significant difference between the slope (b-value) of the total length-total weight regression of males and females of both Diplodus species (D. vulgaris, ANCOVA:F (2, 261) = 2.788 p=0.096; D. sargus ANCOVA:F (2, 127) = 1.049, p=0.308)

Summary

Introduction

Diplodus vulgaris (Geoffroy, 1817) and Diplodus sargus (Linnaeus, 1758) are commercially important species (Beltrano et al, 2003; Gonçalves et al, 2003) which are targeted by the recreational fishery (Agius Darmanin & Vella, 2018) in the Mediterranean Sea. While some authors have published in different areas for both species e.g. Dulčić et al (2011) and Benchalel & Kara (2013), studies on the stock composition of these two species in the central Mediterranean are more limited especially for D. sargus. The demographic structure of fish stocks is considered an important characteristic by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MFSD) for determining the health of the population with age based indicators having been shown to be more reactive to exploitation (Brunel & Piet, 2013). Together with the use of genetic studies provide valuable scientific data which is essential for the management of fishery resources with studies on D. sargus suggesting that the population structure of this species is a complex one (González-Wangüemert et al, 2007), while a low-level structure is present in the Mediterranean region for D. vulgaris (Kaoueche et al, 2011)

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