Occurrence of three red listed species of Epinephelus (Perciformes: Serranidae) on Digha coast, India
Prasanna
Yennawar 1, Prasad Tudu 2 & Anil Mohapatra 3
1,2,3 Marine
Aquarium & Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Digha, West Bengal
721428, India
Email: 1yprasanna@rocketmail.com(corresponding author),
2 dular4u@gmail.com,3 anil2k7@gmail.com
Date of
publication (online): 26 October 2011
Date of
publication (print): 26 October 2011
ISSN
0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor: K. Rema Devi
Manuscript details:
Ms # o2641
Received 15 December 2010
Final received 08 June 2011
Finally accepted 08 September 2011
Citation: Yennawar,
P., P. Tudu & A. Mohapatra (2011). Occurrence of three
red listed species of Epinephelus(Perciformes: Serranidae) on Digha coast, India. Journal
of Threatened Taxa 3(10): 2150–2152.
Copyright: © Prasanna
Yennawar, Prasad Tudu & Anil Mohapatra 2011. Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use
of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and
distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of
publication.
Acknowledgements: We are
thankful to Dr. K. Venkataraman, Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for his support and guidance. We are also thankful
to anonymous reviewer & Editor for critically reviewing the manuscript and
useful suggestions.
Serranidae
is one of the widely distributed marine fish families in Indian waters. This family has 137 species available
throughout the world out of which 110 species are known in the Indo-Pacific
region (Fishbase 2010) and around 70 species under 15 Genera in Indian
waters. In this family, Epinephelus is the major genus contributing 38
species out of 77 species in the Indo-Pacific and 97 species world over. Digha coast, being one of the major
marine fish landing stations on the eastern coast of India, several efforts
were made for inventorying marine and estuarine fishes in the area (Manna &
Goswami 1985; Goswami 1992; Talwar et al. 1992). The recent updated information about fish fauna of Digha
coast was given by Chatterjee et al. (2000) and updated by (Yennawar & Tudu
2010). During
routine efforts to maintain diversity in the public aquarium at Marine Aquarium
& Regional Centre, ZSI, Digha. The authors encountered three more species of Epinephelus, which after thorough literature survey
were found to be unreported from this area though listed in the IUCN Red list
of threatened fauna. Three new
site records of occurrences of the genus Epinephelus are Epinephelus coioides Orange Spotted Grouper
(Hamilton, 1822), Brindle
Grouper Epinephelus lanceolatus (Bloch,
1790) and Striped Grouper Epinephelus
latifasciatus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1842) .
The
specimens were collected between August 2009 and November 2010 by the local
fishers from the Digha coast in live condition for display in the marine
aquarium of the Zoological Survey of India. The specimens were identified following (Heemstra &
Randall 1993).
Epinephelus coioides (Hamilton,
1822)
Synonyms: 1822. Serranus coioides Hamilton, Fishes of Ganges : 82.
1993. Epinephelus coioides Heemstra and Randall, FAO.Fish. Synop., (125)
16: 130.
Common names: Orange-spotted Grouper, Estuary Cod or
Brown-spotted Grouper. This fish
is known as Mérou taches oranges in French and Mero de pintas naranjas in
Spanish.
Material examined: 1ex., 20.viii.2009,
TL 415mm, HL145, CL 75, Hospital Ghat, Digha, coll. Prasanna Yennawar &
P.C. Tudu, (MARC, ZSI, Digha. Reg. No.677). The fish was displayed in the aquarium
tank at MARC, Digha.
Diagnostic characters: D XI, 15; AIII, 8; C 18; P 19; V I,5; Body elongated; head length 2.34 times in standard
length; head and body tanned dorsally, shading to whitish ventrally; numerous
small brownish-orange spots on head, body and median fins; five irregular,
oblique bars on the body that bifurcate ventrally; rounded caudal fin.
Distribution: Continental shores and large islands from
the Red Sea to South Africa and from the east to the western Pacific, where it
ranges from the Ryukyu Islands of Japan to Australia and out to the islands of
Palau and Fiji, Indo-West Pacific (Russell & Houston 1989). Recently reported from the
Mediterranean coast of Israel (Heemstra & Randall 1993).
From
Indian coastal waters the species was reported from Andhra Pradesh coast
(Barman et al. 2004), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Rajan 2003), Chennai coast
(Krishnan et al. 2007), Orissa coast (Barman et al. 2007) and Gujarat coast
(Barman et al. 2000). The species
is presently classified as Threatened in the IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species (IUCN 2010).
Epinephelus lanceolatus (Bloch,
1790)
Synonyms: 1790. Holocentrus lanceolatus Bloch, Nat. Ausland Fische. 4. 94
1993. Epinephelus lanceolatus Heemstra and Randall, FAO. Fish. Synop., (125) 16: 174
Common names: Brindle Grouper, Queensland Grouper,
Brindle Bass, Giant Grouper, Banded Rockcod in English, Wekhali in Gujarati,
Kalava in Tamil, Bontoo in Telugu.
Material examined: 1ex., 06.v.2010,
TL 277mm, HL 89mm, CL 51mm, Hospital Ghat, Digha, coll. Prasanna Yennawar & P.C. Tudu,
(MARC, ZSI, Digha. Reg. No. 702). The fish is on
display, in the aquarium tank at MARC, Digha.
Diagnostic characters: D: XI, 15; A: III, 8; P. 19; V: I,5; Body robust, eyes small, lower jaw somewhat projecting,
mouth oblique, maxillary reaching beyond posterior border of the eye. Pre-operculum obtusely rounded, its
hind border finely serrated; small scales on maxilla and snout; Dorsal fin
originating above the base of pectorals, spines short and first two spines
almost equal in length. Rays of
the dorsal fin are more or less curved in shape; caudal fin rounded;
Yellowish-brown colour, vaguely mottled; all fins with black spots and
blotches.
Distribution: This is the most widely distributed
grouper occurring throughout the Indo-pacific region from the Red Sea to Algoa
Bay, South Africa and eastward to the Hawaiian and Pitcairn Islands. In the western Pacific its distribution
ranges from the north to southern Japan and southward to Australia (from north western Australia to northern New South Wales.
From
Indian waters this species is reported from Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Rao
2003; Rajan 2003), Andhra Pradesh coast (Barman et al. 2004), Orissa coast
(Barman et al. 2007) and Gujarat coast (Barman et al. 2000).
The
species is presently under Vulnerable category (IUCN 2010). The species is also known to be a traumatogenic species
(Halstead et al. 1990).
Epinephelus latifasciatus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1842)
Synonyms:1842. Serranus latifasciatusTemminck & Schlegel, Fauna of
Japonica, poissus: 6.
1993.Epinephelus latifasciatus Heemstra and Randall, FAO. Fish. Synop., (125) 16: 176.
Common names: Laterally Banded Grouper, Banded Grouper,
Striped Grouper.
Material examined: 1ex., 30.xi.2010,
SL 318mm, HL 123mm, CL 50mm, Location: Digha Mohana, coll. Anil Mohapatra &
P.C. Tudu. (Reg. No. 748).
Diagnostic characters: D: XI, 14; A: III, 8; P. 17; V: I,5; Three dark brown lines on the body; fourth line from
border of upper jaw below anterior 1/3 of eye through upper edge of base of
pectoral fin to caudal base; in caudal peduncle, the lines on either side meet
and run along its ventral edge. Body is oblong and laterally compressed. Its depth is 2.9 times in
standard length. Preopercular
border produced at angle, armed with several enlarged serrae.
Distribution: Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea, Persian Gulf,
Gulf of Oman, Pakistan, India, Viet Nam, Hong Kong, China, Korea, southern Japan,
Taiwan, and northwest Australia. Unknown from the east coast of Africa, islands of the Indian Ocean,
Indonesia, Philippines, New Guinea.
From
Indian waters the species was reported from Andhra Pradesh coast (Barman et al.
2004), Chennai coast (Krishnan et al. 2007), Orissa coast (Barman et al. 2007)
and Gujarat coast (Barman et al. 2000).
The
species is presently Data Deficient (IUCN 2010).
REFERENCES
Barman,
R.P., P. Mukherjee & S. Kar (2000). Marine
and Estuarine Fishes, In State Fauna Series No.8-Fauna of Gujurat (Part-1), i-vi:
311–412.
Barman,
R.P., S. Kar & P. Mukherjee (2004). Marine and Estuarine fishes. In Sate fauna series 5: Fauna of Andhra Pradesh, Part 2:
97–311.
Chatterjee, T.K., Ramakrishna, S. Talukdar
& A.K. Mukherjee (2000). Fish and fisheries of Digha coast of West Bengal. Records of Zoological Survey of India,
Occasional Paper 188(1): 1–74.
Fishbase (2010).Fishbase, Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. World Wide Web electronic
publication, www.fishbase.org,version (7/2010).
Goswami,
B.C.B. (1992). Marine fauna of Digha
Coast of West Bengal, India. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. India 34(1&2): 115–137.
Halstead,
B.W., P.S. Auerbach & D.R. Campbell (1990). A Colour Atlas of Dangerous Marine
Animals. Wolfe Medical
Publications Ltd, W.S. Cowell Ltd, Ipswich, England, 192pp.
Heemstra, P.C. & J.E. Randall (1993). FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 16. Groupers
of the world (family Serranidae, subfamily Epinephelinae).
IUCN (2010). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. I
Version 2010.2. Downloaded in August 2010.
Krishnan,
S., S.S. Mishra & D. Prabhakar (2007). Fishes.
In: Fauna of Chennai coasts, Marine Ecosystem
series 1: 119–287.
Manna, B. & B.C.B. Goswami (1985). A check list of marine & estuarine fishes of Digha, West
Bengal, India. Mahasagar18(4): 489–499.
Rajan, P.T. (2003). A Field Guide to Marine Food Fishes of
Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, 260pp.
Rao,
D.V. (2003). Guide to Reef Fishes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, 555pp.
Russell,
B.C. & W. Houston (1989). Offshore fishes of the
Arafura Sea. Beagle 6(1): 69–84.
Talwar,
P.K., P. Mukherjee, D. Saha, S.N. Paul & S. Kar (1992). Marine and estuarine fishes. Fauna of West Bengal, State Fauna Series3(Part-2): 243–364.
Yennawar, P. & P. Tudu (2010).New record of occurrence of Indian Yello Boxfish: Ostracion cubicus (Linnaeus, 1758) from Digha, Northern
East Coast of India. Records of Zoological Survey of India 110(1):
115–118.