Evaluation of Fishery Status and Some Biological Aspects of Striped Piggy, Pomadasys stridens from Gulf of Suez, Red Sea, Egypt

Abstract

The Egyptian marine fisheries have an area of more than 11 million acres, comprise the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, and despite the large area they occupy, their fish production is still low compared to their area. The fisheries grounds in the Red Sea is 4.4 million acres, and its beaches extend a thousand kilometers long, including the areas of the Gulf of Suez in Suez Governorate, El-Tur, Dahab and Newibaa in South Sinai Governorate, and Hurghada, Safaga, El-Quseir, Berenis, Shalatein and Abo Ramad in the Red Sea Governorate.The Gulf of Suez is considered as one of the major sources of fish production in the Egyptian sector of the Red Sea as well as in Egypt. Its importance as a fish resource can be attributed to the shallowness and sandy bottom which make it suitable for trawling. Also, it is characterized by the presence of a great diversity of highly economic fish and invertebrate species (Sanders and Kedidi, 1984;Sanders and Morgan, 1989;Mehanna, 1997.The fisheries resources in the Gulf were exploited by three main fishing methods; trawling -caught demersal fishes‖, purse seining -caught pelagic fishes‖ as well as long and hand lines -caught demersal and pelagic fishes‖ (Mehanna and El-Gammal, 2007; Mehanna, 2021).