A comparative study on the morphometric and meristic characteristics study of Alosa caspia (Eichwald, 1838) populations in the southern Caspian Sea the basin

The present study was conducted on the comparison of morphometric and meristic factors among Alosa caspia (Eichwald, 1838) populations in the southern Caspian Sea basin. A total of 285 Alosa caspia specimens were caught from three localities, from west to the east of Caspian Sea including Guilan (Bandar Anzali), Mazandaran (Sari) and Golestan (Miankale) provinces. Thirty morphometric and ten meristic traits were examined. The results of principal components analysis, the discriminant factor analysis and canonical variates analysis on the counting traits indicate the little difference of specimens among populations. Therefore, it can be stated that differences in environmental and nutritional conditions caused relatively poor morphological differences among the populations studied. However, these results need to be verified by further studies on genetic, physiological and osteological characteristics in the populations.