COMPONENTS OF FISH FAUNA IN THE COASTAL WATERS OF HA TIEN, VIETNAM

Ha Tien coastal waters, located in the Kien Giang Biosphere Reserve, recognized by UNESCO, are diverse and abundant of marine living resources. Based on samples collected in 2013-2018, this paper aims to provide a biodiversity data to setup database of fish fauna in the coastal waters of Ha Tien, Vietnam. Total of 199 fish species were identified belonging to 138 genera, 65 families, 21 orders, including approximately marine stenohaline fishes (43,22% of total) and euryhaline fishes (56,78% of total, living in fresh-brackish, brackish-marine and fresh-marine inhabits). The most dominated order was Perciformes with 89 species (44.7%), 59 genera (42.8%) and 27 families (41.5%), following was Gobiiformes with 18 species (9.0%), 15 genera (10.9%) and families 2 (3.1%). Three rare precious fish species were in the list of Vietnam Red Data Book (2007).