DNA barcoding of rays from the South China Sea

Fishery management on elasmobranchs is gaining attention in recent years due to their economic value and the key ecological role played by them in their natural habitat. Many species of elasmobranch, especially rays, exhibit overlapping morphological similarities and hence difficult to identify to their species level. As an accurate identification is key for developing a framework for fishery management, we used a molecular approach to identify ray fishes sampled from South China Sea. We used Cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) sequencing (~652 bp) to cross-examine field identification of ray fishes. A total of 10 species belonging to 3 families were successfully sequenced/identified from 29 PCR products. BLAST/BOLD analysis was performed and inter- and intra-species genetic distance was calculated. Due to overlapping morphological characters and morphocryptic nature, their accurate field identification is challenging. We also addressed problems in species-level delimitation of ray fishes due to the paucity of information in DNA databanks besides unresolved taxonomic status of available dataset. We further addressed management and action plan for sustainable management of elasmobranch fishery in Malaysia