<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:HI" lang="EN-GB">Reproductive biology of the common cuttlefish (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Sepia officinalis </i>Linnaeus, 1758) in Iskenderun Bay (Northeastern Mediterranean Sea)</span>

1689-1694<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" "times="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-gb;mso-fareast-language:en-us;="" mso-bidi-language:hi"="" lang="EN-GB">Morphometric characters and reproductive biology were studied in S. officinalis collected at different seasons from the Iskenderun Bay, Turkey. A total of 2006 specimens (992♀, 1014♂) were sampled from September 2005 to August using a Mediterranean type deep trawl (22 mm mesh size). Mean mantle lengths for female and male were 9.83±1.66, 9.40±1.76 cm and the mean weights were 135.78±6.71g, 115.34±6.29g, respectively. Sexual maturity lengths were calculated as 12.04 for females and 10.30 cm for males. Mean diameter of eggs was measured as 5.367±9.12 mm per spawning period. Spermatophore lengths were estimated to range from 2.8±1.05 to 12.4±2.11mm. Population consisted of gonochoristic induviduals. Although, sex ratio of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Sepia officinalis were not significantly different from the expected 1:1 ratio (p>0.05), a slightly male biased sex ratio was recorded.