Relationship between Length, Weight, and Some Morphometric of the Cuttlefish Sepia pharaonis Ehrenberg, 1831 from the Coastal Waters of Hadhramout Governorate, Yemen

Abstract

The cuttlefish (Sepia pharaonis) is great economic importance to Yemen, due to their high commercial value in national and international markets. S. pharaonis is benthic species that live closely associated with the seabed. The relationship between total length, weight, body width, and circumference is crucial in estimating allowable catch and the appropriate mesh size for use in a particular fishery. Samples were collected from commercial catches at landing centers (Al-Shahr, Al-Haima and Al-Qarn) during the period from October 2023 to March 2024. Previous studies have mainly focused on classification, while biological studies on the commercial value of this species in Yemeni waters have been lacking. This study revealed that the R₂ values were high in all cases, and the length-weight relationship showed decreasing growth for 0.8209 males, 0.9661 females, and 0.9491 both genders together. Regarding the relationships of mantle length, mantle width, total body; Officinalis length, and Widths of The fragmocone, the quadratic equations had similar or equal R₂ values to linear equations. This provides valuable information for the Fish Base database and contributes to research and management of cuttlefish fisheries in the coastal waters of Hadhramout Governorate, especially, and Yemeni waters in general.