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¹ Mohammed V University in Rabat, Faculty of Sciences, Laboratory of Biodiversity, Ecology and Genome, Morocco
² University of Sfax, Faculty of Sciences, Laboratory of Biodiversity and Aquatic Ecosystems, Tunisia DOI : 10.4194/1303-2712-v21_11_03 Viewed : 1843 - Downloaded : 1383 The European anchovy, Engraulis encrasicolus (Linnaeus, 1758) is a small pelagic fish found in the eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Anchovy (E. encrasicolus) are among the important finfishes harvested in Moroccan coasts. The stock structure of European anchovy in NW Africa is not truly known (FAO, 2013). To effectively manage the anchovy fisheries, it is important to understand the anchovy stock structure. Therefore, discriminant function analysis (DFA) based on morphometric characters was conducted on a total of 204 adult anchovy specimens, seasonally collected by commercial fishing vessels from the region of Mehdia in the North Atlantic area and from the region of M`diq in the Mediterranean coast during the year 2019. Body shape variation, which is often environmentally induced, may provide a good record population structuring. Our data were subjected to univariate statistics of variance (ANOVA) by using SPSS 20 software version. The morphometric characteristics show a separation of two stocks of Engraulis encrasicolus between the two localities. These findings will have major implications for anchovy fisheries management in Morocco. Keywords : Engraulis encrasicolus, Stock identification, Morphometric characters, Discriminant analysis