HISTORICAL APPROACH OF THE FISH SPECIES COMPOSITION IN ARROYO MORENO, VERACRUZ, MEXICO

Abstract

<p>Arroyo Moreno (AM) is an estuarine water flow located between Boca del Río and Medellin municipalities from Veracruz State; although this estuarine habitat is situated in a state natural reserve, their environmental conditions had been altered in last decades by anthropogenic activities, which had caused changes on biotic communities including fishes. The aim of this contribution was to describe the temporal variation of fish species composition from Arroyo Moreno; an updated list of fish species was compiled for this estuarine channel, this list was made with ethnographic information provided by local fisherman using surveys, fish species catalogues, previous publications and complemented with cast net samplings. Sixty-two fish species were recorded, of these 18 were collected directly for us, another 41 species were identified by surveyed fishermen; the most abundant ecological guilds were marine temporary, freshwater temporary, and marine migrant species. With the historical fishermen’s information was inferred than both fish species richness, abundance and size had diminished noticeably in commercial fish species mainly, this outcome was related by the fishermen to the use of estuarine channel as drainage attributed to urban development in the zone.</p>