Abstract
In the Red Sea, pearl oyster banks occur most extensively around the Dahlak and the Farasan Islands. Pearl oysters (Pinctada, Pteriidae) form extended beds by attaching themselves to hard substrates. Such beds attract a diverse bio-fouling fauna. Most dominant are the molluscs, but little is known about the associated biota of pearl oyster beds, their distributional abundance, and the structure of this community. In this study, the macro-molluscan fauna living on pearl oyster beds in the Red Sea around the Farasan Islands was studied using a quantitative survey of the by-catch left by pearl oyster divers. Bivalvia represented 99.6% of the malaco-fauna on pearl oyster beds around the Farasan Islands, while gastropods and chitons represented only 0.4%. In total, 33 mollusc species were identified (24 bivalves, 7 prosobranch gastropods, one basomatophore gastropod and one chiton), with Brachidontes variabilis, a species which is not found on Arabian Gulf pearl oyster beds, the most common bivalve (71% of all molluscs), and Diodora ruppellii the most common gastropod (0.12% of all molluscs). The results are discussed and compared with the pearl oyster beds from the Arabian Gulf.
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