4 
EANHS Bulletin 30(1) 
Fishing lures cn route between dive 
sites. 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
A total of 96 species from 46 families 
were identified between Barmadobc 
and Dudura (Table 1). As water 
visibility was extremely poor (seldom 
more than 3 m) it was sometimes not 
possible to be completely certain of 
species identification in genera where 
there are species with similar 
morphological appearances. Where 
such uncertainty occurred, the given 
species is indicated by a question mark 
in Table 1. Based on the distributions 
given by Fischer and Bianchi (1984) 
and Sommer ei al. (1996), a number 
of new distribution records were noted: 
1 Argyrosomus japomeus 
A shoal of large Argyrosomus sp. 
(- 10 kg per fish) were observed in 
Shallow water near Kulule. 
Unfortunately the external morphology 
of A. japonic us. A. hololepidotus and 
A thorpei is very similar (Griffiths and 
Heemstra. 1995) so it was not possible 
for the authors to distinguish which 
species was seen. However, 
considering the large size of the 
specimens observed and their 
occurrence in shallow, turbid water, 
they were most probably A . japonicus, 
as this is the preferred habitat of this 
species (Griffiths and Heemstra. 
1995). Nevertheless, none of the above 
three species have been recorded in the 
Indian Ocean off Somalia or in the Gulf 
of Aden (Druzhinin and Filatova. 
1979; Fischer and Bianchi. 1984; 
Sommer ei al. 1996). This therefore 
represents a new distribution record. 
A fourth possibility is that the fish 
observed may have been A. regius but 
this species has so far not been 
recorded south of the Red Sea (Fischer 
and Bianchi. 1984). 
2 Diplodus sargus 
A shoal of juvenile D. sargus ( < 100 
mm TL) was observed in shallow water 
near Dudura. It is uncertain whether 
the sub-species was D. s. capensis or 
D. s. koischyi, but based on 
considerable experience of the former 
species (Mann. 1992), the first author 
considers D. s. capensis to be the more 
likely of the two. However, neither 
species has previously been recorded 
from the area (Fischer and Bianchi, 
1984). 
3 Dinoperca petersi 
Although suspected to occur in this 
region (Sommer el al 1996), this 
represents the first verification of the 
occurrence of this species in the waters 
off the Somalia coast. 
4. Caranx sem 
Although known to occur throughout 
the region (Fischer and Bianchi. 
1984), this species was not included 
by Sommer el al. (1996) in their 
description of the marine resources of 
the area 
A number of the smaller fish 
species belonging to the families 
Apogonidae. Chaetodont idae . 
Cirrhitidac. Holoccntridae. 
