diversity, taxonomy, and conservation status of carangiform fishes in the northwestern indian ocean: an annotated checklist

The current checklist documents species diversity of the order carangiformes across major regions of the northwest indian ocean (nio) including the marine waters of the persian gulf, sea of oman/oman sea, arabian sea, red sea and the gulf of aden. a total of 168 species, belonging to 72 genera and 16 families have been documented. the most diverse family is carangidae (60 species, 36%), followed by bothidae (24 species, 14%), cynoglossidae and soleidae (each family with 19 species, 11%). during the past decade, only two new valid species cynoglossus crepida and cynoglossus glotta have been described from the region. according to the iucn red list, most of the reported species (110 species, 65%) are classified as least concern (lc). additionally, 31 species, (18%) are listed as data deficient (dd), 23 species (14%) as not evaluated (ne), while three species (trachurus indicus, trachurus trachurus and makaira nigricans) as vulnerable (vu). kajikia audax is asssessed as near threatened (nt). further research and collection efforts will likely reveal more species in this area.