Resumo

PARRA, Berta; RUIZ, Lilia J  e  PRIETO, Antulio. Ecological indexes and biometric parameters of Haemulidae (Pisces: Perciformes) in the coastal zone of the Cubagua island, Venezuela. Zootecnia Trop. [online]. 2007, vol.25, n.1, pp.51-61. ISSN 0798-7269.

The aim of this work was to analyze the spatial and seasonal distribution, relative abundance of the Haemulidae species in the Cubagua island and biometric aspects of the four most abundant species. Monthly samples were obtained at five stations, from March 1999 to February 2000, with seine beach hauls. A total of 2393 specimens were captured distributed in four genus and 15 species, of which 11 corresponded to Haemulon. Seven species represented 97.3%, being the most abundant Haemulon steindachneri (57.8%), followed by H. aurolineatum (21.3%), Orthopristis ruber (5.4%), H. boschmae (5.1%). The first three species presented isometric growth with b similar to 3, while for H boschmae was significantly greater than 3. The most representative samples were from June to November (67.3%), that is coincident with rainy period and high temperature of the water. At the Charagato and Las Minas stations, the highest number of organisms (49.0 and 42.7%, respectively) and species (11 and 9 species, respectively) were captured, due to its location and high productivity.  Total diversity of the Family varied between 1.03 and 2.01, with an average of 1.53 bits/ind. H. steindachneri, for its abundance in the sampling and the presence in all stations, was the Haemulidae characteristic species in the Cubagua Island.

Palavras-chave : Haemulidae fishes; diversity; spatial and seasonal distribution; biometry.