Fishes Biodiversity in La Siguanea inlet, Cuba. Item Type Journal Contribution Authors Rodríguez-Viera, Leandro; Navarro-Martínez, Zenaida; Evans, David; Ruiz-Abierno, Alexei; García- Galano, Tsai; Angulo-Valdés, Jorge A. Download date 28/09/2021 17:01:42 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/12439 revista de investigaciones marinas REVISTA INVESTIGACIONES MARINAS Centro de Investigaciones Marinas Universidad de La Habana http://www.cim.uh.cu/rim/ ARTÍCULO ORIGINAL FISHES BIODIVERSITY IN LA SIGUANEA INLET, CUBA Biodiversidad de peces en la ensenada de La Siguanea, Cuba Leandro Rodríguez-Viera1*, Zenaida Navarro-Martínez1, David Evans2, Alexei Ruiz-Abierno1, Tsai García- Galano1, Jorge A. Angulo-Valdés1,3. 1 Center for Marine Research, ABSTRACT University of Havana, La Siguanea inlet, one of the two inlets present in the Gulf of Bataba- Havana, Cuba (CIM-UH), nó, contains essential habitats such as seagrass beds and mangroves. Calle 16 No. 114 e/ 1ra y However, it has been poorly studied and currently there is little infor- 3ra, Miramar, Playa, CP mation about the biological diversity in the area. The aim of this stu- 11300, Habana, Cuba. dy was to make the first check list of fishes on this region of the Cuban archipelago. We used complementary methodologies such as multiple 2 Environments and seine nets, gill net, drum lines, visual census and underwater video Engineering Department, census. The inventory recorded 122 species of fishes distributed in 53 Northumbria University, families. The best represented families were Haemulidae, Lutjanidae, Newcastle, United Kingdom Scaridae, Carangidae, Monacanthidae and Gerreidae. This finding 3 Current addres: School coincided partially with similar studies done in other Cuban shelf of Natural Resources and areas, although the order of these may vary. During the surveys a Environment, University of high proportion of juvenile fishes was found, which suggests a possible Florida, United States of nursery site that could be playing an important role in fish stocks in America the area. This result contributes to raise the knowledge about marine biodiversity in Cuba and also for the Caribbean, providing a baseline * Autor para correspondencia: of fish for the area. In this work we found a high diversity of fishes in La Siguanea inlet, as well as a high proportion of juveniles. Future [email protected], studies that explore the composition and structure of fish stocks in [email protected] the area are required; as well as studies on the possible connectivity between this area and the reefs in Punta Francés. Allowing a better understanding of ecological processes in the area, and in turn a better Recibido: 26.9.2017 use and management of these natural resources. Aceptado: 11.1.2018 KEY WOrdS: Cuba, diversity, fishes, inventory, La Siguanea inlet. RESUMEN La Ensenada de la Siguanea es una de las dos ensenadas presentes en el Golfo de Batabanó, en la cual se pueden encontrar importantes hábi- tats para el desarrollo de los peces como son los pastizales y los man- glares. No obstante, esta ensenada ha sido poco estudiada y se cuenta con poca información sobre la diversidad biológica en el área. El obje- tivo de este estudio fue realizar, por primera vez para el área, un inven- tario de las especies de peces. Se emplearon diferentes metodologías de muestreo como redes de pesca, palangres, censos visuales y videos bajo REVISTA INVESTIGACIONES MARINAS RNPS: 2096 • ISSN: 1991-6086• VOL. 37 • No. 2 • JULIO-DICIEMBRE • 2017 • pp. 29-45 MARINE FISHES OF LA SIGUANEA 30 Rodríguez-Viera • Navarro-Martínez • Evans • Ruiz-Abierno • García-Galano • Angulo-Valdés el agua. Se inventariaron 122 especies de peces in the Gulf of Batabanó has been poorly distribuidas en 53 familias. Las familias más studied. To our knowledge, only studies diversas fueron Haemulidae, Lutjanidae, Scar- on manatee populations (Alvarez-Alemán idae, Carangidae, Monacanthidae y Gerreidae, coincidiendo parcialmente con resultados pre- 2010; Navarro-Martínez 2012; Hernández vios en otras regiones del país, aunque su orden et al. 2013; Alvarez-Alemán et al. 2016) puede variar. En los muestreos se encontró una and one about macroalgaes characteriza- alta proporción de juveniles de peces, sugirien- tion (Suárez 2011) have been carried out. do que esta es una zona de crianza, que puede La Siguanea inlet includes protected tener un rol importante en las poblaciones de areas with different levels of protection peces en el área. Estos resultados contribuyen al conocimiento de la diversidad marina en Cuba (CNAP 2013). A complementary protec- y el Caribe, proporcionado una línea base de la tion existed when the former Ministry of ictiofauna para la Ensenada de la Siguanea. Fisheries (MIP) created an Area under En este trabajo se encontró una alta diversidad Special Regime of Use and Protection de de peces en la Siguanea, así como un elevada (ASRUP) in 1996, where finfish fishing proporción de juveniles. Se requieren de estu- was banned. Additionally La Siguanea in- dios futuros que exploren la composición y es- tructura de las poblaciones de peces en el área, let contains essential habitats for the occur- así como la posible conectividad entre esta área rence of fishes, such as seagrass beds and y el Parque Nacional Punta Francés. Esto per- mangroves. These habitats are undisputed mitirá un mejor entendimiento de los procesos nursery habitats for fishes and other ma- ecológicos en el área, y un mejor uso y manejo de rine organisms (Velde et al. 1992; Adams los recursos naturales. et al. 2006). They contribute to the pres- PalaBraS clave: Cuba, diversidad, Ensenada de ence, abundance and distribution of fish- la Siguanea, inventario, peces. es (González-Sansón et al. 2008) and also, an important component in vital ecological INTRODUCTION processes (Harborne et al. 2006; Mumby et The south platform of Cuba has been the al. 2008). scene of numerous researches because Fish are important components in ma- of its commercial importance (Arriaza rine ecosystems because of their role in tro- et al. 2008; Rodriguez-Viera et al. 2012; phic webs (Scheffer et al. 2005; Mumby et González-Díaz et al. 2012; Pina-Amargós al. 2006; Hughes et al. 2007), their sensi- et al. 2012a, b). The Gulf of Batabanó has, bility as diversity indicators (Beger et al. particularly, been the one most studied 2003) and coral reefs health indicators due to its commercial importance, main- (Graham et al. 2008: Pratchett et al. 2014). ly because important lobster fisheries Their abundance and diversity have been (Claro et al. 2001; Lopeztegui et al. 2012). accepted as an index of marine protect- Today there are several studies in the ed area effectiveness (Micheli et al. 2004; Gulf of Batabanó covering topics such as Alcala et al. 2005). Also, fishes can be cru- sediment (Alonso-Hernández et al. 2011), cial in the selection of areas to conduct abiotic factors (Arriaza et al. 2008), macro- recreational SCUBA diving (Williams fauna (Gómez et al. 1980; Arias-Schreiber and Polunin 2000; Angulo-Valdés 2005; et al. 2008) and ecology of different taxa Figueredo-Martín et al. 2010). It is there- (Armenteros et al. 2012). However, La fore important and necessary to develop Siguanea inlet, one of the two inlets present a baseline of the icthyofauna components REVISTA INVESTIGACIONES MARINAS RNPS: 2096 • ISSN: 1991-6086• VOL. 37 • No. 2 • JULIO-DICIEMBRE • 2017 • pp. 29-45 MARINE FISHES OF LA SIGUANEA 31 Rodríguez-Viera • Navarro-Martínez • Evans • Ruiz-Abierno • García-Galano • Angulo-Valdés in La Siguanea inlet to contribute to the of natural resources (VI) according to the current knowledge of marine biodiversity International Union for Conservation of in the area, which is why the aim of this Nature (IUCN), respectively. study was to make the first check list of fishes for La Siguanea inlet. SURVEY METHODS Due to the extension of the region and lo- MATERIALS AND METHODS gistics availability, in this first approach to STUDY AREA the diversity of fishes in the area, we fo- La Siguanea inlet is located in the Gulf of cused on a network of 24 stations (Fig.1). Batabanó, southwest of the Isle of Youth, The habitats were characterized by whi- Cuba, between 21° 38' 00" N and 83° 05' te sandy-muddy bottoms, organic content, 00" W, from Punta Buenavista to Punta seagrasses and mangrove. Surveys were Francés covering an area of 348 km2 in to- conducted close to the mangrove roots, sea- tal , with 179 km of coastline (Fig. 1). The grass beds, sandy bottom and a temporary topography is very uniform, with an ave- lagoon. The average depth of the stations rage depth of 7 m and maximum depth of sampled was 0.88 m, whose range was 13.4 m to the center of the inlet (Lorenzo- 0.30 m to 3.50 m (except for shark stations). Sanchez et al. 2006). This cove is characte- Sampling was conducted from June to rized, among others, by mangrove habitats, August in 2014, 2015 and 2016, using dif- muddy, medium gray sediments, low parti- ferent methodologies. Three seine nets culate organic matter (POM), however the were used which varied in length. The area closer to the coastline is characterized largest net was 25 m and the medium net by intermediate to high seagrass biomass, was 9 m, but the most used was a smaller dark gray sediments, high POM (Claro 6 m net. The nets hit a max height of 1.80 m et al. 2001). The tidal range is very low across all of the 3 nets. Each net had a (< 0.4 m), as reported to the Caribbean is- lead line attached along its base in order lands (Claro et al. 2001). The coastline to keep it smoothly running along the sea- itself is covered mostly by mangrove (Red bed and help to reduce the number of spe- Mangrove, Rhizophora mangle), but we can cies to escape under the net.