Recruitment of Fish Species of Commercial Interest in the Arade River Estuary. Programa MARE - P.O. Pescas (Cód. 22-05-01-FDR-00017)

The present study aimed to characterize the fish assemblages of the Arade estuary (Algarve, south Portugal), with special focus to the commercially important species. Monthly sampling surveys were conducted between February 2004 and April 2005, using several sampling methods: beam trawl, beach seine, trammel net, pushnet, fish traps and visual censuses. Each sampling gear/method was used to cover a specific kind of habitat. Species were classified as commercially important if present in local fish markets and/or listed on Direcção Geral das Pescas annual landings reports. In total 72761 fish (268.4 Kg) from 35 families and 101 species were caught. Most important families were Sparidae (16 species), Gobiidae (13) and Soleidae (8). Beam trawl was the method with the highest number of species registered (65), followed by beach seine (58) and visual census (38). Most of the species registered were occasional visitors, although the resident species dominated both in number and biomass. Pomatoschistus microps (53.9%) was the most abundant species, followed by Sardina pilchardus (17.4%) and Atherina presbyter (8.8%). In terms of biomass, the dominant species were Halobatrachus didactylus (27.2%), Diplodus vulgaris (7.2%) and Atherina presbyter (6.9%). The majority of species (56) was commercially important; within the species of highest economic value, the most important (in weight) were sardine Sardina pichardus (12.5%), two-banded seabream Diplodus vulgaris, (7.2%), seabass Dicentrarchus punctatus (6.2%), senegalese sole Solea senegalensis (4.2%) and white seabream Diplodus sargus (3.4%). More than 90% of these species were exclusively represented by juveniles, which highlights the role of the Arade estuary as an important nursery ground for many fishes. The distribution and structure of the fish assemblages within the estuary shown a clear spatial and seasonal pattern, showing significant correlations with some of the abiotic parameters measured.

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