Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

The Korean Society of Fisheries and Aquatic Science (한국수산과학회)
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Confirmed record of abalone Haliotis arabiensis near Muscat (Sea of Oman) and a description of abalone species from the Arabian Peninsula

  • Nadir Al-Abri (Marine Science and Fisheries Centre, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources) ;
  • Mikhail Chesalin (Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of RAS) ;
  • Yahya Al-Wahibi (Marine Science and Fisheries Centre, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources) ;
  • Mohammed Balkhair (Fisheries Research Center-Dhofar, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources)
  • Received : 2023.09.26
  • Accepted : 2023.12.28
  • Published : 2024.05.31
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Abstract

Haliotis arabiensis Owen, Regter & Van Laethem, 2016 was found near Muscat city of Oman in the Sea of Oman in September 2021. A total of 85 abalone specimens were collected under small boulders from a depth of 2-5 m during the scuba diving survey from seven stations located from Sidab to Bandar Khairan. The shell length (SL) of the abalone ranged between 10.0 and 30.0 mm, on average 19.9 ± 0.22 mm SL. The sex was determined in 15 females and 21 males. The study presents photos and a comparative table with morphological descriptions of four abalone species (H. arabiensis, H. mariae, H. rugosa multiperforata and H. unilateralis) which are important for differentiating the small abalone species from juveniles of H. mariae during monitoring surveys of this important commercial species in Oman.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

We appreciate the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources and the General Directorate of Fisheries Research for financial support of our investigations. We would like to thank our diver team from the Marine Science and Fisheries Centre Ahmed Al-Humaidi and Salem Kahoom from Fisheries Research Center-Dhofar in Salalah for help in collection of the abalone samples. We are grateful to Asila Al-Maawali for abalone photos.

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