Checklist of the fish fauna of the Araçá Bay, São Sebastião Channel, northern coast of São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

This paper presents for the first time a checklist of the fish fauna of Araça Bay, São Sebastião Channel, northern coast of São Paulo state, Brazil. Fishes were sampled in five surveys from October 2012 to February 2014 using nine different types of sampling gear during high tide. Tide pool fishes were also sampled in four surveys from March to October 2014. Geographic distribution and conservation status of each species are reported. A total of 126 species was recorded in Araçá Bay, including two non-native species and new records in the São Sebastião region for 16 species. The fish species richness found in Araçá Bay was greater than the previously recorded for the São Sebastião Channel and other adjacent areas. Most of the Araçá fish species show a wide distribution along the western Atlantic Ocean (32%). Few species are included in the international (29%) and Brazilian (3.3%) official lists of threatened species.

Ichthyofauna from Santos-São Vincente upper estuary: a study before and during fire at Santos port terminal

“…The importance of the Argentinean zoogeographic province in the diversity of marine and estuarine fishes was also observed in Laje de Santos State Marine Park (Luiz Jr et al, 2008), in the Paranaguá estuary complex (Passos et al, 2012) and in the marine coastal region between Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina (Rotundo et al, 2019). However, species from the Argentinean province did not contribute significantly to diversity in the present study or the study in Araçá Bay in São Sebastião, in the state of São Paulo (Lamas et al, 2016).…”

“…We also highlighted the presence of the mud sleeper Butis koilomatodon (Eleotridae) in the region. This fish species is native from the Indo-Pacific Ocean region (Froese & Pauly, 2020), where was firstly describe on the western Atlantic Ocean in Venezuela by Lasso-Alcalá et al (2005) and posteriorly along the Brazilian Coast (Hercos, 2006;Cunningham & Gondolo, 2009;Macieira et al, 2012;Soares et al, 2012;Contente et al, 2016;Bonfim et al, 2017;Guimarães et al, 2017). The current record represents the south limit of its distribution in the Brazilian Coast, extending in 127.2 km from the Contente et al (2016) record at Araçá Bay (São Sebastião -SP).…”

Optimal fishing samplers to reveal the morphological structure of a fish assemblage in a subtropical tidal flat

“…Worldwide, coastal shallow sandy areas (including tidal flats) are recognized as important nursery and growth grounds for fish (Gillanders et al, 2003;Adams et al, 2006;Favero, Dias, 2015;Le Luheme et al, 2017). The peculiar presence of the small mangrove spots in Araçá Bay, the habitats heterogeneity and the advantageous hydrodynamics, provide shelter and food for juveniles of many species, including important commercial fishes, besides being a natural refuge for some globally considered threatened species, such as the snappers L. analis and L. cyanopterus, and the dusky grouper E. marginatus (Lamas et al, 2016;Contente, Rossi-Wongtschowski, 2017). Gibson (1994), Vasconcelos et al (2013), and Le Pape, Bonhommeau (2015) consider this kind of ecosystem as a nursery ground, and according to Sheaves et al (2014) and Nagelkerken et al (2015), this characteristic renders a substantial importance for its maintenance.…”

“…Vouchers were deposited and catalogued at the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo (MZUSP) (the voucher number of specimens is presented at S1 -Available only as online supplementary file accessed with the online version of the article at http://www. scielo.br/ni and is also available at Lamas et al, 2016).…”

“…The Araçá Bay (southeastern Brazil) is a tidal flat ecosystem (~ 500,000 m²) with highly diverse habitats occupied by more than 1,364 species, with 56 novel species catalogued, as well as 16 threatened species (Amaral et al, 2015). The latter including ten benthic species (three polychaetas, five echinoderms, and two enteropneustas); one bird, the royal tern (Thalasseus maximus (Boddaert, 1783)), which reproduces on the Brazilian coast exclusively in São Paulo State (Yorio, Efe, 2008); one sea turtle, Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus, 1758); and five marine fishes, including the dusky grouper (Epinephelus marginatus), the mutton snapper (Lutjanus analis), the cubera snapper (Lutjanus cyanopterus (Cuvier, 1828), and two rays, the chola guitarfish valid as Pseudobatos percellens (Walbaum, 1792) and the spiny butterfly ray (Gymnura altavela (Linnaeus, 1758)) (Amaral et al, 2010;Amaral et al, 2015;MMA, 2014;Lamas et al, 2016;Contente, Rossi-Wongtschowski, 2017).…”