Role of mangroves as a nursery ground for juvenile reef fishes in the southern Egyptian Red Sea

This work aims to study the importance of mangrove area as nursery grounds for the juvenile of reef fishes in the Red Sea. Juvenile fishes were collected during three seasons in 2010 from three mangrove swamps by a beach seine net. The net was dragged on the bottom for 100 m three times. A total of 269 juvenile fishes were collected, representing 21 species in 19 families. The most abundant species formed about 86% of all collected fishes. Nine species were collected for the first time from mangrove areas in the Egyptian Red Sea. Most of the collected fishes are economically important fishes. Moreover, eleven families were belonging to coral reef fishes. The highest species richness value was recorded in Hamata mangroves. This finding showed that how mangroves could support the life history of many coral reef fishes.