The fish fauna from atami beach resort, Parana, Brazil.

Abstract

The surf zone fish community at Atami Beach Resort, Paraná, was studied between June 1998 and May 1999. Samples were collected 1) at high tide during daytime and 2) at low tide during daytime and nighttime, for both spring and neap tides. For all samplings, a seine net (30m x 2m, 0,05 cm mesh size and 2m long bag) was pulled along the coastline and the same direction to the current. Concomitently temperature, salinity, wave height and wave period were recorded. A total of 9446 fish from 24 families and 72 species were captured. Population analysis indicated a relatively high number of immature individuals (95%), while among the adults females slightly outnumber the males (58% vs 42%). Species number, total biomass, richness index and diversity index were significantly (p< 0.05) different between months. Bray-Curtis cluster analysis applied on monthly abundance data indicated that the months of June, July, August and September presented a similar fish abundance, while the months of November, December, January, February, March and April formed another temporal group of similar fish abundance. These two groups however differed among each other by 32%, result which was mainly attributed to the migrations of Anchoa tricolor, Sardinella brasiliensis, Trachinotus sp. and Mugil gaimardianus. BIOENV test indicated that salinity and wind intensity on one hand, and wave height, salinity and wind intensity on the other hand, best explain the temporal variations in fish abundance as derived by the cluster analysis.