The name 'Hamour' or ' Hammour' ( ar, هَامُّوْر, Hāmmūr) is used to describe a number of fish, mainly the Goldspotted rockcod (''Epinephelus coioides'') and Brown spotted reef cod (''Epinephelus chlorostigma''). At the same time, it is the name given to a variety of closely related fish species in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

GCC

The

Gulf Cooperation Council The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf ( ar, مجلس التعاون لدول العربية الخليج ), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; ar, مجلس التعاون الخليجي), is a regional, interg ...

keeps fishery records on the fish caught in their territorial waters. Of the estimated 540 species of fish in the Persian Gulf, 11 different species are commonly referred to as Hamour. In records kept by the state of

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

, there is a clear indication that the amount of "Hamour" being caught is rapidly declining, and has dropped sharply since 2008. The decline of the culturally important and prized hamour fish prompted Qatar to start a program to farm the fish species, focusing on the most highly valued Epinephelus coioides. Yet the same states keep record on a "Hamour Group", roughly relating to the catch-all phrase "

Grouper Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes. Not all serranids are called "groupers"; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name "grouper" is ...

". This includes the Brown spotted reef cod, known in the

Persian Gulf states The Arab states of the Persian Gulf refers to a group of Arab states which border the Persian Gulf. There are seven member states of the Arab League in the region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. ...

as "Souman", but also as "Hammour".

Iran

The words 'Hamour' and 'Soman' ( fa, ) are also used in Iran to describe similar species of fish, for example the ''Hamour-e Khaldar-e Qahvei'' (), which is the Persian name for the Brown-spotted reef rod, but which is known in Arabic simply as Hamour.

Bibliography

References

{{reflist Fish common names