Abstract
Fisheries in Cuitzeo, the second largest Mexican lake, used to take place on the permanent freshwater East and Central Basins as opposed to the temporal, saline, and initially thought barren West Basin. The 1980 fisheries collapse forced fishers to look for non-conventional fishing products elsewhere in the lake. The West Basin’s temporal, saline-alkaline, and shallow water provides exceptional habitat for ephydrids to flourish. Locally known as “pupa”, ephydrids are collected in large numbers. Although consumed since pre-Hispanic times, no other commercial fisheries of ephydrids are known worldwide. This study records the species composition and abundance of the “pupa” throughout an annual cycle in the West Basin, where fisheries occur. Two species were found: Ephydra hians and Lamproscatella muria. Ephydrids co-occurred in June and July at the end of the dry season when salinity was highest. L. muria was more abundant (954 ± 2385 ind m−2) than E. hians (94 ± 38 ind m−2). The relatively low salinity of the West Basin favoured L. muria over E. hians, which prefers higher salinities. This “pupa” fishery is still unpredictable due to the astatic nature of the lake, and hence limited economic importance to the local fishers.
Highlights
Elena Anufriieva and Fisheries on Cuitzeo, the largest saline Mexican lake, have been traditionally based on diverse fish species, on the highly appreciated silverside Chirostoma jordaniWoolman, and on other either native (e.g., Goodea atripinis Jordan, Allophorus robustus Bean, and Algansea tincella Valenciennes) or exotic
This paper reports data on diverse aspects of the taxonomy and ecology of the brine fly occurring in Lake Cuitzeo
The ephydrid species richness of Lake Cuitzeo with two species (E. hians and L. muria) is similar to that reported in other studies of saline lakes which varies between one species (E. cinerea Jones) in the Great Salt Lake, Utah [29] and Mono Lake, California (E. hians [30]), two species (E. hians and E. gracilis Packard) in Harper Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert of California [31], three species
Summary
Elena Anufriieva and Fisheries on Cuitzeo, the largest saline Mexican lake, have been traditionally based on diverse fish species, on the highly appreciated silverside Chirostoma jordani. On other either native (e.g., Goodea atripinis Jordan, Allophorus robustus Bean, and Algansea tincella Valenciennes) or exotic Lake Cuitzeo originally comprised of two basins, West and East, interconnected through a wetland area, differing in water depth and physical and chemical characteristics, decreasing in water depth while increasing salinity from the East to the West Basins. The construction of the 43 and 43D highways separated a Central from the West Basin (Figure 1). The Grande de Morelia River discharges through the Central. Traditional fisheries take place mainly in the freshwater East (0.5 g L−1 )
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