Mohamed Abu El-Regal¹ , Laith A. Jawad² , Sahar Mehanna³ , Yassin Ahmad⁴

1. Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science, Port Said University, Port Said, Egypt
2. Flat Bush, Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand
3. Laboratory of Population Dynamics, Fisheries Division, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Suez Branch, Suez, Egypt
4. Laboratory of Population Dynamics, Fisheries Division, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Red Sea Branch, Hurghada, Egypt
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Marine Science, 2016, Vol. 6, No. 37   doi: 10.5376/ijms.2016.06.0037
Received: 24 Aug., 2016    Accepted: 10 Oct., 2016    Published: 11 Oct., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

El-Regal M.A., Jawad L., Mehanna S., Ahmad Y., 2016, Fluctuating Asymmetry in the Otolith of two Parrotfish Species, Chlorurus sordidus (Forsskål, 1775) and Hipposcarus harid (Forsskål, 1775) from Hurghada, Red Sea coast of Egypt, International Journal of Marine Science, 6(37): 1-5 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2016.06.0037)

Fluctuating asymmetry was calculated for the otolith length and width of the adult fishes Chlorurus sordidus and Hipposcarus harid. The results showed that the level of asymmetry of the otolith length was the higher than that of the otolith width in both species. For C. sordidus, the lowest level of asymmetry in the otolith length was at the fish total length ranging between 150-260 mm, and the highest at the fish total length 160-260 mm. For the otolith width, the highest level of asymmetry is at the fish length ranging between 24-26 mm and it has zero value in the other length groups. For H. harid, the lowest level of asymmetry in the otolith length was at the fish length ranging between 160-170 mm, and the highest at the fish length 240-260 mm. For the otolith width, the highest level of asymmetry is at the fish length ranging between 240-260 mm and it has zero value in the other length groups. The possible cause of the asymmetry in these species has been discussed in relation to the general presence of pollutants in the area. An increasing asymmetry with the fish length (age) was noticed.

Otolith; Dimensions; Bilateral asymmetry; Scaridae; Ecological indicator