Morphological characteristics of the native Caspian vimba Vimba persa (Pallas, 1814) from five major rivers along the southern Caspian Sea basin were analyzed using 25 morphometric and 10 meristic characters in order to investigate the hypothesis differentiation and clarify its taxonomic status. Univariate analysis of variance of 288 adult specimens showed significant differences between the means of the five groups for all standardized morphometric measurements (p<0.05) and 5 out of 10 meristic traits. In morphometric traits linear discriminant function analysis, the overall assignments of individuals into their original groups between morphometric were 98.3% and between meristic were 55.4%. The principal component analysis, scatter plot of individual component score between PC1 and PC2 showed that the specimens grouped into five areas in morphometric but in meristic characters these populations have high overlap. The present study indicated there is high morphometric differentiation among the populations of Caspian vimba that can be considered in restocking programs, management and conservational policy of this valuable species in the across of the southern Caspian Sea basin.
