Fish Fauna of the Sikao Creek Mangrove Estuary, Trang, Thailand
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FISHERIES SCIENCE 2002; 68: 10–17 Original Article Fish fauna of the Sikao Creek mangrove estuary, Trang, Thailand Prasert TONGNUNUI,1 Kou IKEJIMA,2–4* Takeshi YAMANE,4 Masahiro HORINOUCHI,4 Tomon MEDEJ,1 Mitsuhiko SANO,4 Hisashi KUROKURA4 AND Toru TANIUCHI2a 1Faculty of Science and Fisheries Technology, Rajamangala Institute of Technology, Sikao, Trang 92150, Thailand, 2Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, 3Asian Natural Environmental Science Center and 4Department of Global Agricultural Sciences, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan ABSTRACT: Between September 1996 and March 1999, a total of 135 fish species in 43 families were recorded from the mangrove estuary of Sikao Creek, Trang Province, Thailand, using two sizes of beach seine and a bag net. A checklist of the species is given, with preliminary descriptions of their assemblage structure. In terms of the number of species per family, Gobiidae was the most diverse (28 species), followed by Leiognathidae (11 species) and Engraulidae (10 species). In terms of individual numbers, Engraulidae, Leiognathidae and Ambassidae were the most dominant, whereby the 20 most abundant species comprised 88.5% of the total number of individuals collected. The fish assemblage structure was compared with published accounts of other tropical Indo-West Pacific mangrove estuaries, and found to be similar to those of tropical Australia. Although a grater number of species were recorded from Sikao Creek than in comparable studies in other geographic regions, all of the studies were similar in that they have relatively few species that are clearly dominant in abundance. KEY WORDS: assemblage structure, fish, mangrove estuary, species list, Thailand. INTRODUCTION presently subject to pressures resulting from industrial and aquacultural development, and Mangrove estuaries are considered to be important wood-chip production.4,5 Detailed knowledge of as nursery or feeding sites for many fish and prawn the role of mangrove areas for fishes is required for species, including those species of commercial the management of both the former and coastal importance. Previous studies in Australia have fisheries. However, studies on fish assemblages in shown that fish assemblages of mangrove areas mangrove areas in South-East Asia have been very differ from those in adjacent habitats, such as sea- limited to date.6–9 For example, Satapoomin and grass and sandflat, and that species’ richness and Poovachiranon have provided a check list of fishes fish abundance and biomass in mangrove areas are (including 232 species) collected from mangrove greater than those in adjacent habitats.1,2 Although areas along the west coast of Thailand, but with Robertson and Duke have reported a higher total only a brief description of their assemblage struc- species’ number in seagrass/sand habitats than in ture.9 Chua has listed 81 common fishes caught mangrove habitats, fish abundance was still much in the Ponggol estuary in Singapore, with a brief greater in the latter.3 Mangrove forests are a domi- account of those that are most predominant,6 and nant feature of South-East Asian coasts, but are Chong et al.7 and Pinto8 have reported relatively high species’ numbers from Malaysia (119) and the Philippines (128), respectively; however, only a list *Corresponding author: Tel: 81-3-5841-8115. Fax: 81-3-5841- of the 10 most abundant species was included in 5189. Email: [email protected] aPresent address: College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon the former and an overall species’ list was omitted University, Kameino, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252-8510, Japan. from the latter. Received 9 February 2001. Accepted 13 June 2001. The present paper provides a list of fishes col- Fish fauna of the mangrove estuary FISHERIES SCIENCE 11 lected from a mangrove estuary in Trang Province, Thailand, as well as preliminary descriptions of their assemblage structure. Similarities in assem- blage structure with other Indo-West Pacific man- grove estuaries are also discussed. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study site, Sikao Creek estuary (7∞32¢N, 99∞20¢E), which is a medium-sized (main channel length approximately 5 km) mangrove estuary, is located in Trang Province on the west coast of Thai- land (Fig. 1). The forest, which is dominated by Rhizophora apiculata, has been designated as a protected area and is relatively undisturbed. Inter- tidal mudflats with mangrove fringes and sandy- mud beaches lacking mangroves, but neither seagrass beds nor coral reefs, occur in the immedi- ate vicinity of the creek mouth. The estuary is sub- jected to semidiurnal tides with a tidal range of 1.0–2.5 m. Sampling was conducted approximately three times a year: March (dry season), August/ September (middle of wet season) and Novem- ber/December (end of wet season) at six fixed stations (stations 1–6) located from the mouth to the upper reaches of the creek (Fig. 1). Salinities at sampling varied from 10 (wet season) to 30 (dry season) in the upper reaches of the creek, but remained relatively stable at the creek mouth (28–32). Water temperatures varied from 26∞C to 34∞C, often being higher at the creek mouth than in the creek reaches, but no seasonal trends were apparent. Fishes were collected using a large and small seine, and a bag net. Size, sampling session and total number of operations for each net are shown in Table 1. The small seine net collected mainly Fig. 1 Map of Sikao Creek showing sampling sites. small-sized fishes, and the large seine net collected larger, more mobile fishes. Many small creek branches of less than a few meters width, from which the water drained completely at spring low juveniles of species otherwise identified on the tides, occurred throughout Sikao Creek. The bag basis of adult specimens. The taxonomic order net was used to catch fishes which entered such a follows Nelson.15 The number of individuals of branch at station 4, the net being set at the mouth each species was counted. As the main aim of the of the small branch at slack high tide, thereby present study was to describe the overall assem- catching the fishes which sought to leave the blage structure of the Sikao Creek estuary, varia- branch on the ebb tide. Captured fishes were pre- tions in the assemblage structure among seasons served in 10% formalin and identified to species’ or stations were not analyzed. level whenever possible, following mainly Kottelat et al.,10 Mohsin and Ambak,11 Munro,12 Nakabo,13 and Smith and Heemstra.14 A few species remained RESULTS unidentified and several juveniles could be identi- fied only to family or genus level. Among the The list of fish species caught in the Sikao Creek unidentified juveniles, Scomberoides sp. and estuary, together with the number of individuals of Secutor sp. were not considered to be separate each species, is given in Table 2. A total of 135 species because they appeared most likely to be species in 43 families were recorded, of which 94 12 FISHERIES SCIENCE P Tongnunui et al. Table 1 Sampling scheme and net dimensions Net type Small seine Large seine Bag net Wing length (m) 8 26 5 Mesh size of wing (mm) 3 20 5 Mesh size of cod end (mm) 3 13 3 Sampling periods Aug 1996–Mar 1999 Dec 1998–Aug 1999 Nov 1997–Mar 1999 Total no. sampling sessions 8 3 5 Sampling stations* 1,2,4 3–6 4† Total no. operations 96 64 5 *See Fig. 1. †Small branch (ª 3m wide) from the main creek at station 4. Table 2 Number of individuals (ranks) of fish species collected from Sikao Creek estuary, Trang, Thailand Family Species SS LS BN Total (Rank) Dasyatidae Himantura imbricata 33 Elopidae Elopidae sp. 1 1 Engraulidae Encrasicholina devisi 393 1 394 (15) Stolephorus andhraensis 213 Stolephorus apiensis 314 Stolephorus chinensis 39 70 590 699 (10) Stolephorus commersonii 729 Stolephorus dubiosus 112 Stolephorus indicus 1 857 17 18 1 892 (5) Stolephorus insularis 3441158 Thryssa hamiltonii 40 878 420 1 338 (7) Thryssa setirostris 525 30 Pristigasteridae Ilisha melastoma 45 45 Clupeidae Anodontostoma chacunda 1321 34 Escualosa thoracata 17 485 502 (12) Sardinella sp. 40 40 Bagridae Mystus gulio 120 21 141 Synodontidae Trachinocephalus myops 33 Batrachoididae Allenbatrachus grunniens 10 10 Mugilidae Chelon subviridis 59 59 Ellochelon vaigiensis 68 68 Moolgarda engeli 18 16 1 35 Moolgarda seheli 67 67 Moolgarda parmatus 58 58 Atherinidae Atherinomorus duodecimalis 192 2 194 Hypoatherina valenciennei 1 584 760 208 2 552 (3) Phallostethidae Neostethus lankesteri 3 947 950 (8) Adrianichthyidae Oryzias javanicus 35 1 905 1 940 (4) Belonidae Strongylura strongylura 266 14 Tylosurus crocodilus crocodilus 73 10 Hemiramphidae Dermogenys sumatrana 22 22 Hyporhamphus affinis 11 Hyporhamphus limbatus 436 34 2 472 (14) Zenarchopterus buffonis 86 133 63 282 (19) Zenarchopterus dunckeri 39 1 39 79 Scorpaenidae Vespicula trachinoides 16 21 37 Platycephalidae Inegocia japonica 11 Platycephalus indicus 22 Centropomidae Lates calcarifer 11 Ambassidae Ambassis interrupta 11 11 Ambassis macracanthus 14 14 Ambassis nalua 47 2 2 51 Ambassis urotaenia 116 17 Ambassis vachellii 1 290 1 881 649 3 820 (1) Fish fauna of the mangrove estuary FISHERIES SCIENCE 13 Table 2 Continued Family Species SS LS BN Total (Rank) Apogonidae Apogon hyalosoma 810 18 Apogon albomarginatus 88 Serranidae Epinephelus coioides 11 Sillaginidae Sillago aeolus 33 Sillago intermedius 12 12 Sillago sihama 451 44 1 496 (13) Carangidae Carangoides praeustus 24 6 Caranx ignobilis 11 Caranx sexfasciatus 66 Scomberoides commersonnianus 77 Scomberoides lysan 11 2 Scomberoides sp. 3 3 Carangidae sp. 3 6 9 Leiognathidae Gazza dentex 20 17 1 38 Leiognathus decorus 360 926 231 1 517 (6) Leiognathus equulus 86 631 7 724 (9) Leiognathus leuciscus 11 Leiognathus pan 14 14 Leiognathus rapsoni 22 Leiognathus splendens 33 272 305 (17) Leiognathus stercorarius 138 39 Secutor hanedai 34 34 Secutor insidiator 35 35 Secutor megalolepis 944 1 711 50 2 705 (2) Secutor sp.