Morphometric study on Sepia pharaonis in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea

The pharaoh cuttlefish (Sepia pharaonis) is the most aboundant species in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. The stock patterns of this species were studied concerning biological and morphological aspects. In addition to measuring the biological patterns, 20 quantitative factors were measured. The results of LSD test showed that tentacle organ is indicative factor which shows significant difference between male and female specimen of Bushehr and Balouchestan regions. Regarding to length and weight frequencies data the results indicated that males are always bigger than females and also, the cuttlefishes of the Gulf of Oman are bigger than Persian Gulf samples. The results of cluster analysis for both sexes showed that the cuttlefishes of both studied region belong to separate stocks. Taking into consideration the findings of present study including: (1) difference in spawning season, (2) results of dendrograms, (3) observed significant differences in one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for morphometric measurements, (4) differences in body length and weight, (5) as well as ecological variations of the Persian Gulf and "the pharaoh cuttlefishes of Bushehr and Oman Sea, have indicated that Balouchestan belong to two separate stocks.