DNA Barcoding approach reveals 17 exploited fish species, including an unrecognised species of the yellow-lined snapper complex

Management of wild fisheries resources requires accurate knowledge on which species are being routinely exploited, but it can be hard to identify fishes level, especially in speciose fish groups where colour patterns vary with age. Snappers the genus Lutjanus represent one such group, and as a result statistics fail capture species-level taxonomic information. This study employs DNA barcoding approaches adult juvenile harvested Malaysian wild-capture fishery. We uncovered two divergent bigeye snapper (' lutjanus' ) distributed either side Malay Peninsula, displaying biogeographical pattern similar distributions observed for many co-occurring reef groups. One these almost certainly represents an unrecognized need description. The demonstrates utility identifying overlooked diversity assessing catch composition complicated economically important group.