ECOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL STUDIES ON JUVENILE COMMERCIAL FISHES FROM PORT SAID COASTS

Abstract

Juveniles of marine fishes usually concentrated in specific areas (nursery grounds).• The nursery grounds include the insular shelves, coral reef habitats, sheltered inshore areas, bays, mangrove habitats and coastal lakes.

Typically, the juvenile fishes remain in the nursery ground for some time, often no more than a year before vacating it for their adult habitat Shallow coastal . habitats offer advantages over the marine environment in the term of protection from predators and for its richness in food supply.

Port Said represents a large fishing area on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. It is extremely important nursery grounds for many commercial fishes such as mullets, sea bass, sea bream and sardines. The entrance of Lake Manzalah including the shore of Port Said is an important collection site for juveniles of commercial valuable fish species to meet the demand of aquaculture. The aim of the present work is to determine the structure of juvenile fish community inhabiting the coastal shallow water of Port Said and assess the importance of ecological habitats for economically important fish species. The life history pattern of the main species and its Lessepsian • migration through the Suez Canal to eastern Mediterranean were also investigated. To achieve these aims, fishes were sampled monthly during 1996-1997 by trawling and seine nets, from Port Said fishing harbour on the entrance of Suez Canal (site 1) and Port Said coast on the Mediterranean Sea (site 2) with seasonal sampling from Damietta coast on Mediterranean Sea (site 3), Lake Timsah (site 4) and Deversoir (site 5) on the Suez Canal.