A survey on community structure, diversity and distribution of fishes from Qeshm Hara protected area

Qeshm Hara protected area is the largest and only biosphere reservoir in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea that covered with mangroves. This study was aimed for population structure and species diversity of fishes in Hara protected area. Fishes were sampled monthly in 5 stations by fixed set-net(Moshta), drift set net (Khoorband), trawl survey and beach seine net method from September 2016 to August 2017. A totally of 16521 fish individuals were collected belong to 115 species, 92 genus and 57 family. The most frequent family of fishes were Leiognathidae (40.4 %), Mugilidae(11.4%), Pristigasteridae(5.9%), Clupeidae(5.8%), Gerreidae(5%), Sillaginidae(3.2%). The most dominant species was Nuchequula gerreoides with 6383 individuals (38.6%), along with Ilisha melastoma, Gerres oyena, Nematalosa nasus, Liza melinoptera, Liza klunzingeri, Osteomugil perusii , Sillago sihama, Upeneus sulphureus, Acanthopagrus arabicus and Pomadasys kaakan formed about 75 percent of the all collected fishes. Population dynamics of dominant fishes (16 species) were estimated using length frequency analysis, the results showed that the dominant were high growth rates and short-lived. Most fish have a life span of less than 10 months, only the Liza klunzigeri, Sillago sihama and Pomadasys kaakan have a mean life span of over one year in the studied area. The natural mortality rates of predominant fishes were generally higher than 1, except for Plotosus lineatus, which was 0.92. The fishes exploitation rates were above 0.5, except for 5 species of Ilisha melastoma, Nematalosa nasus, Nematalosa resticularia, Osteomugil persuii and Pomadasys kaakan, were less than 0.5. Investigating the diversity indices in the Hara protected area indicates the biological richness of this area, so that the lowest Margalf index was 42.5 at station 5 and the highest was 9.96 at station 1. The results of the Shannon index showed that station 2 had the lowest with 1.71 and station 1 with the highest score of 3.05. The Simpson index, except at station 2, equal to 0.54, was higher than 0.8 in other stations. The lowest Pilou index was 0.4 at station is 2 and the highest at station 3 with 0.73. The assemblage of fishes follows the clumped pattern distribution. The ABC curve and the W-Statistic index measured in the survey area indicate a desirable situation and the none-stress conditions in the Hara protected area.

Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute

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