Fish and Fisheries of the Eastern Coast of Mexico, with Emphasis on Coral Reef Species

Abstract

The state on knowledge of fish communities associated with coral reefs of the southern Gulf of Mexico (Veracruz, Campeche bank), and eastern Yucatan on the Caribbean is reviewed, in addition to a description of the main fisheries of the area. The review includes coral reef fish of Veracruz, the Campeche Bank, and reefs running along the Caribbean coast up to the border with Belize. Data recorded suggest that the heterogeneity of different levels (region, reef and reef zone) may be responsible for a larger number of niches available, promoting higher specific diversity that is more evident in the Caribbean reefs. The environmental conditions create patterns of differential abundance among the three zones. The main regional fisheries include more than 60 species and the current yield suggests a 30% reduction compared to catch volumes recorded a few years ago. The changes in coral coverage and the fishing pressure over coral reefs have exerted effects on species of fishing importance.

The reef fish assemblage of a coral reef system in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico

“…The high recorded species richness for the VRSNP could be explained because it is the largest reef ecosystem in the southern Gulf of México (< 50 reefs), which provides a high environmental/ecological heterogeneity that could be exploited by several reef fish species. Another plausible reason is because in the VRSNP more fish surveys have been carried out than in other areas (Del-Moral et al, 2013;González-Gándara & Chávez, 2020;Robertson et al, 2019). Compared to similar ecological studies (assemblage structure) in other coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico, the number of species recorded here ( 116) is slightly higher than the 91 species for the Tuxtlas Reef System (González-Gándara, 2020a), Figure 9.…”

“…However, the knowledge on the assemblage structure of reef fishes is scarce, with few studies that just averaged abundances for the whole reef system, which recorded Chromis multilineata, Halichoeres burekae, Coryphopterus personatus, Haemulon aurolineatum, Stegastes adustus, and Abudefduf saxatilis as the most abundant species. Additionally, higher fish densities have been reported for the reefs of the northern group, for the 10-15 m range depth, and for the 2009 year in the 2006-2014 period (González-Gándara & Chávez, 2020;Olán-González et al, 2020;Pérez-España et al, 2015;Rangel-Ávalos et al, 2008). However, none of these studies addressed for differences in the reef fish assemblage structure among reefs, nor they found a relationship with any ecological or environmental factor.…”

“…The bottom of the SWGM shelf is composed mainly by fine terrigenous siliciclastic sediments sourced from the continent by several rivers (Carrillo et al, 2007;Mendelssohn et al, 2017). Two coastal areas with rocky bottoms are also present in the SWGM, one between Villa Rica and La , and the other between Roca Partida and Coatzacoalcos (18º09-42' N) (González-Gándara, 2020;Murawski et al, 2018;Ortiz-Lozano et al, 2013). Additionally, 3 large coral reef systems are present in the SWGM, the Tuxpan Reef System (21º00-33' N), the Veracruz Reef System (19º03-15' N), and the Tuxtlas Reef System (Carricart-Ganivet & Horta-Puga, 1993;Ortiz-Lozano et al, 2013;Tunnell, 2007).…”

Ten years later: An update on the status of collections of endemic Gulf of Mexico fishes put at risk by the 2010 Oil Spill

“… Escarcega-Quiroga and Flores-Serrano (2020) reported H. burekae to be a frequently consumed species in the diet of the introduced Red lionfish ( Pterois volitans ) in coral reefs of northern Veracruz, Mexico. Gonzlez-Gandara and Chavez (2020) reported the relative abundance of H. burekae as > 30% in Veracruz Coast, 2-5% in Campeche Bank and < 1 in the Mexican Caribbean. Status listed as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List ( Rocha et al 2015 ).…”