Abundance and Distribution of Abalones Along the Andaman Sea Coast of Thailand.

Abstract

A servey on species, abundance and distribution of abalones along the west Coast of Thailand, Andaman Sea from Ranong to Satun Provinces was carried out during July, 1985-April, 1986. A total of 753 individuals of three species, comprising 13 of Haliotis asinine Linne, 1758, 130 of H. ovina (Gmel, 1791) and 610 of H. varia (Linne, 1758), were collected. The mean size of H. asinine was 43.8±23.8 mm in shell length, H. ovina was 43.6±13.4 mm and H. varia was 33.4±9.8 mm. Maximum sizes of the species were as follow: H. asinine 80.6 mm. H. ovina 75.5 mm and H. varia 60.1 mm. Even though H. ovina was not largest size, but they were commonly found in a bigger size than the other two species, approximately 56.9% of the species had the size ranges between 40-59 mm. Among the three species, H. varia was the most abundant and the widest distribution. Maximum abundance was found at Ko Rok, Trang Province. H. ovina was the second and found mostly at Ko Lipae, Satun Province and Ko Dam Khwan, Krabi Province. H. asinine was omly found along the coast of Ko Phuket.