Morphometric characterization and identification of sardines at the Ghazaouet station and Béni-Saf bay

Abstract

The seafood products are part of the animal protein resources and a wide variety of mineral salts, among which is produced sardine (Sardina pilchardus) which has a very important commercial and economic interest in the world. In Algeria, although its coastline covers a large area, it has generally apear a decrease in the amount of sardine landed in recent years especially in the west coast. The sardine does not have the same economic value, according to its origin, this species can have prices and or a frequency of sale different, it is the case of our two studied population or the sardine of the Béni-Saf bay is appreciate more than of the region of Ghazaouet. Indeed, we made morphometric measurements of five parameters (weight (W), total languor (LT), length of muzzle to fork (LM), length between anal fin and muzzle ( LA), the length between the anal fin and the pelvic fin (LP)) after two samplings at the edge of a sardine boat at two stations, one located at Ghazaouet and the other at the level of Béni-saf with a total number of samples equal to 199 individuals. It appears from the analysis of the results that the weight has a highly significant correlation with the total length at the level of the Béni-saf. The same observation was made in Ghazaouet but with less intensity. The parameter (weight) analyzed showed a clear superiority of the Béni-Saf population to that of the population of Ghazaouet. This work also proved to us that the population of Béni-saf and Ghazaouet are well individualized and therefore justifies their own identity on the market. For more scientific precision blood sampling (50 samples for each population) was carried out for subsequent molecular characterization studies.