Diversity of coral reef fishes in Lark Island, Persian Gulf

Abstract

The coral reefs are one of the most important and rich ecosystems in the world and are considered as major habitat for different species group of fishes. Fourteen islands are found in the northern Persian Gulf including Larak Island of which the coral regions around this island were determined and then for sampling, 6 stations were randomly selected by Manta Tow method in July to December 2010. The identification was conducted using Visual Census technique in 6 stations. A total of 54 species belong to 41 genera and 23 families were identified and amongst them the abundant species group belonged to Pomacentridae family with 11 species. The results indicated that however the stations were far from urban area; the species diversity has been higher.