ISLAMABAD: Two newly identified species of the cobia fish have been found off Pakistan’s Gwadar coast in the northern Arabian Sea, according to a new study published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Zoologischer Anzeiger, whose latest edition came out this month.
The cobia is a species of marine carangiform ray-finned fish, whose other common names include black kingfish, black salmon, ling, lemonfish, crabeater, prodigal son, codfish, and black bonito.
“This study describes two newly identified species, Rachycentron blochii sp. nov. and Rachycentron makranesis sp. nov. from Gwadar in the northern Arabian Sea,” said the study, authored by Dr. Sher Khan Panhwar and Dr. Imtiaz Kashani, professors at the Center of Excellence in Marine Biology at the University of Karachi.
“The newly discovered species differ significantly from their relatives in multiple morphological traits, such as head profile, mouth, pectoral fin, caudal fin, caudal peduncle, dorsal and anal fin bases, gill rakers, and body coloration.”
The recent finding increases the number of cobia species in the northern Arabian Sea, Pakistan, the study says, presenting information on the species’ biological and ecological aspects such as feeding habits, age assessment, habitat preferences and fishery-related details.
The research was financially supported by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan through its National Research Programme for Universities project.
“At first glance, I thought it was another black king cobia but when I looked closer at the markings on its body, I knew it was different,” Dr. Panhwar told Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, explaining that he was traveling with students on a routine survey of the Gwadar fish harbor last year when he spotted the new species. The team was there to study the black king cobia or Rachycentron canadum, a commercially popular large fish found around the world.
Fresh specimens weighing between 4 and 7 kg were immediately cooled in dry-ice and packed into ice boxes for transportation to the fisheries laboratory at the University of Karachi, some 650km away from the Gwadar harbor.
Back at the laboratory, Dr. Panhwar and his colleague Dr. Kashani analyzed the unusual cobias, examining their appearance, dissecting them, and comparing them with the typical species.
The two new species have been named the Blotchy Cobia, a nod to the large gray markings found on its body as well as to the Balochi language spoken in the region. The other one will be called Makran Cobia, named after the Makran coast where it was found.
“At this time, these species of cobia have only been spotted in Pakistan,” Panhwar told Dawn.
