Fisheries biology of the Red Sea goatfish Parupeneus forsskali (Fourmanoir & Guézé, 1976) from the northern Red Sea, Hurghada, Egypt

This study represents the first assessment and evaluation of age, growth, mortality and sexual maturity for Parupeneus forsskali in order to support the development of effective management plans. Samples were collected from the commercial landings in Hurghada fishing port, between May 2010 and June 2011. Age was determined for 456 samples using otoliths, scales and length frequency analysis. Growth parameters were estimated by applying the von Bertalanffy growth function. The asymptotic length (L∞), the growth rate (K) and (t0) were estimated as 30.0 cm; 0.38 year−1 and −0.434 year respectively. The annual total mortality (Z), natural mortality (M) and fishing mortality (F) were estimated at 2.76/year, 0.9/year and 1.86/year. It is shown that the resource of P. forsskali in the Red Sea is overfished, since the present (F) was greater than the target biological reference points (Fopt = 0.43 and Flimit = 0.57) and the exploitation ratio (E) 0.67 was intensively over than the predicted value (E0.5 = 0.34 and Emax = 0.58).