MARINE AND FISHERY SCIENCES 35 (3): 431-436 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.47193/mafis.3532022010902
ABSTRACT. Areolate grouper, Epinephelus areolatus, is one of the reef-associated fish species
which is highly sought-after in the seafood trade. Consequently, a high market demand resulted to
overexploitation and population decline of the species in the wild. This paper aimed to determine
the size structure of E. areolatus from the Arabian Gulf. A total of 355 specimens of E. areolatus
collected over the 12-month sampling period revealed high proportions of females observed
throughout the year and in size class. Males (29.3 cm, 358.44 g) were bigger and heavier than
females (28.8 cm, 326.66 g). The ‘b’ values ranging from 2.86 to 2.88 indicated negative allometric
growth. The relationship between length and weight showed significant positive correlations with p
< 0.0000 and r2values ranging between 96.05-97.12%.
Key words: Arabian Gulf, areolate grouper, length-weight relationship.
Estructura de talla del mero areolado (Epinephelus areolatus) de la costa saudí del Golfo
Arábigo
RESUMEN. El mero areolado, Epinephelus areolatus, es una de las especies de peces asociadas
a los arrecifes que es muy buscada en el comercio de productos del mar. Consecuentemente, una alta
demanda de mercado resultó en la sobreexplotación y la disminución de la población de la especie
en la naturaleza. Este trabajo tuvo como objetivo determinar la estructura de tamaño de E. areolatus
del Golfo Arábigo. Un total de 355 muestras de E. areolatus recolectadas durante 12 meses de mues-
treo revelaron altas proporciones de hembras durante todo el año y en la clase de talla. Se observa
que los machos (29,3 cm, 358,44 g) fueron más grandes y pesados que las hembras (28,8 cm, 326,66
g). Los valores de “b” que oscilan entre 2,86 y 2,88 indicaron un crecimiento alométrico negativo.
La relación entre longitud y peso mostró correlaciones positivas significativas con p < 0,0000 y
valores de r2que oscilaron entre 96,05-97,12%.
Palabras clave: Golfo Arábigo, mero areolado, relación largo-peso.
Areolate groupers, Epinephelus areolatus (Forsskål, 1775), are reef-asso-
ciated fishes found mainly on depths ranging from 6-200 m (Froese and
Pauly 2013). They are usually inhabitants of seagrass beds or fine sediment
bottoms near rocky reefs, dead coral, or alcyonarians, in shallow continental
shelf waters (Tupper and Sheriff 2008; Froese and Pauly 2013; Sanaye 2014).
Despite the wide distribution of Family Epinephilidae, this species is found
only in the Indo-Pacific region (Russell and Houston, 1989; Heemstra and
Randall 1993; Ottolenghi et al. 2004; Sanaye 2014) (Figure 1). Areolate
431
*Correspondence:
jesusito.vicente@gmail.com
Received: 4 February 2022
Accepted: 23 February 2022
ISSN 2683-7595 (print)
ISSN 2683-7951 (online)
https://ojs.inidep.edu.ar
Journal of the Instituto Nacional de
Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero
(INIDEP)
This work is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
International License
Marine and
Fishery Sciences
MAFIS
NOTE
Size structure of Areolate grouper (Epinephelus areolatus) from the Saudi
coast of the Arabian Gulf
JESUSITO A. VICENTE*
Pangasinan State University, Binmaley Campus, Binmaley 2417, Pangasinan, Philippines
groupers are important fisheries and aquaculture
species. Together with other grouper species, they
are considered most highly sought-after food
fishes in the seafood trade (Kuo 1995; Sadovy et
al. 2003). However, the high demand of grouper
in the market generated a negative ecological
impact. It is the most
intensively exploited group in the live fish
trade, implying that this group is heavily over-
fished (Morris et al. 2000). Studies reveal that
trade often follows a pattern of sequential over-
exploitation where the most sought species is tar-
geted and fished out first before the less valuable
species (Johannes and Riepen 1995; Sluka 1997).
Barrowman and Myers (1996) and Reinert et al.
(2005) indicated that the removal of considerable
number of sexually mature fish in the stock
would compromise the overall stock reproductive
output, especially the species forming concentrat-
ed and brief spawning aggregations (Sadovy and
Domeier 2005), such as this group. Population
decline was already observed in some areas and is
attributed to overfishing, habitat degradation and
pollution, destructive fishing techniques, high
export demand, etc. (Johannes 1997; Sadovy
2000). Together with the compounding effect
brought about by natural and anthropogenic caus-
es, stocks cannot sustain their population. As a
result, natural stocks are depleted or even worse,
some species are threatened to become extinct. At
present, some species of groupers are already
considered ‘threatened organisms’ according to
IUCN categories and criteria.
In the region, fisheries are considered as the
most important natural resource next to oil (Car-
penter et al. 1997). In Saudi Arabia, production
figures reveal an increasing trend from 1996 to
2005 (Ministry of Agriculture Saudi Arabia,
2007). Only in 2005, a total of 74,779 t of seafood
products were produced from traditional fishing,
industrial fishing, fresh and marine aquaculture.
Nearly three-fourths (70.5%) of total catch con-
tributed from traditional fishing. Industrial fish-
ing and aquaculture account only for 10.2% and
19.2%, respectively. There are two main grouper
species commonly sold in the market, namely E.
coiodes and E. areolatus. Their prices range from
USD 15-25 and USD 8-11 kg-1, respectively.
432 MARINE AND FISHERY SCIENCES 35 (3): 431-436 (2022)
Figure 1. Geographical distribution of Epinephelus areolatus.
The purpose of this study was to determine the
size structure of areolate grouper, E. areolatus
from the Arabian Gulf. It particularly focuses on
the length-weight relationship which can be a
useful tool in management and conservation of
the species in area.
Specimens of E. areolatus were collected on a
monthly basis from Jubail Fish Market and Auc-
tion Center, a major fish landing site on the east-
ern province of Saudi Arabia, western part of the
Arabian Gulf. A total of 355 samples were col-
lected over the 12-month sampling period from
February 2014 to January 2015. The relationship
between total length (TL) and whole-body weight
(BW) of E. areolatus was analyzed by measuring
length and weight of the specimens. The statisti-
cal relationship between these parameters of fish-
es was determined by using the parabolic equa-
tion formulated by Froese (2006) as follows:
W =aLb
where, W =weight of fish (g), L = length of fish
(mm), a =constant and b =an exponential
expressing relationship between length-weight.
Such relationship when converted into the loga-
rithmic form gives a straight-line relationship
graphically. The same equation mentioned above
is written in logarithmic form as:
Ln W =Ln a +b*Ln L
where, b and the coefficient of determination r2
were estimated at 95% confidence limit. Statisti-
cal analyses were computed using EXEL STAT
for Windows (XLSTAT 2007).
The length of the gathered samples ranged
between 17.1-47.1 cm, with the mean length of
28.95 cm. The weight ranged between 58.10-
1,343.43 g, with the mean of 334.80 cm. It was
further observed that males (29.3 cm, 358.44 g)
were bigger and heavier than females (28.80 cm,
326.66 g). Maximum length and weight reported
in other areas were as follows: 50.5 cm and 1.94
kg in Egypt (Abd-Allah et al. 2015), 29.5 cm in
the Philippines (Gumanao et al. 2016), 49.5 cm
and 1.5 kg in India (Nair et al. 2021), and 30.2 cm
and 0.38 kg in Indonesia (Fadli et al. 2022).
The ‘b’ value was 2.88 for males while for
females it was 2.86, and for combined sexes it
was 2.87. Results indicated that the weight of E.
areolatus increased with the increasing length
(Figure 2). Analysis of regression shows that
there was a significant relationship between the
two variables with p <0.0000 and r2values rang-
ing between 96.05-97.12%. Typically, growth in
fish is explained by von Bertallanfy curve (Hop-
kins 1992; Pauly 1994; Jobling 2002) represented
by an asymptotic sigmoid curve in many species
(Ricker 1979). In reef fishes like E. areolatus,
fast growth is exhibit during pelagic and juvenile
stages, however, it slows down during transitions
into adulthood to apportion more energy for
breeding (Jobling 1994; Hutchings 2003; Claro
and Garcia-Arteaga 2014). In the present study,
computed ‘b’ values were 2.87 (combined sexes),
2.88 (males) and 2.86 (females). This is an indi-
cation that the fish shows a negative allometric
growth implying that the parts of the fish grow
slower compared to its body as a whole. This
growth performance index is similar to the stud-
ies conducted from the Gulf of Suez (2.83), north
coast of Aceh, Indonesia (2.86-3.31), southwest
coast of India (2.95-3.2) and Davao Gulf, Philip-
pines (3.03) (Abd-Allah et al. 2015; Gumanao et
al. 2016; Nair et al. 2021; Fadli et al. 2022).
The relationship between length and weight
showed a positive correlation, suggesting that the
weight of E. areolatus increased with the increas-
ing length. According to Jennings and Polunin
(1997), this relationship is a morphometric meas-
urement of how a species allocates mass allomet-
rically. The association between the two variables
can be useful to estimate standing crop biomass
(Abd-Allah et al. 2015), assess species fitness
overtime (Bolger and Connolly 1989) and pro-
vides information on production capabilities
(Jobling 2002).
433
VICENTE: LENGTH-WEIGHT RELATIONSHIP OF E. AREOLATUS FROM THE ARABIAN GULF
434 MARINE AND FISHERY SCIENCES 35 (3): 431-436 (2022)
Figure 2. Length-weight relationship of Epinephelus areolatus from the Arabian Gulf, n =355 (nmale=91, nfemale = 264). A)
Combined sexes. B) Male. C) Female.
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8
Log total length
10
Log weight
10
Log W 2.8703Log TL - 1.7231
10 10
=
R 0.9635
2
=
A
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8
Log total length
10
Log weight
10
Log W 2.8853Log TL - 1.7438
10 10
=
R 0.9712
2
=
B
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7
Log total length
10
Log weight
10
Log W 2.864Log TL - 1.7145
10 10
=
R 0.9605
2
=
C
Similar to the reproductive capability of a
species, growth is largely associated with the pre-
vailing local environmental circumstances (Roff
2000). Many studies have uncovered that the pro-
nounced growth variability within and between
populations is due to the combination of both
genetic and environmental factors such as tem-
perature, photoperiod, pH, salinity, and food
availability (Werner and Gilliam 1984; Manooch
1987; Conover 1990; Sadovy et al. 1992; Sale
1998; Lombardi-Carlson et al. 2008; Munday et
al. 2008; Claro and Garcia-Arteaga 2014).
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