Abstract

In 2003, 80 visual censuses were performed along the Caibarién-Santa María causeway to know the environmental impact over fishes communities. The families better represented were Haemulidae, Lutjanidae, and Scaridae. The abundance and biomass showed significant differences (p<0.05) for the interaction of factors strata and margins. The sizes most seen oscillated between 10-20 cm longitude fork. The dominant trophic resulted in the zoobenthofages. The composition per species showed high similarities to the ones registered at the mangroves of the region, even though the community structure based on the density, differed to those reported in the nearest biotopes. The biomass estimates in some areas were similar to those obtained in the productive reef patches at the Sabana-Camagüey archipelago. The results suggest that the spatial heterogeneity (increase of refuges) contributed by the rocky margins of the causeway has created favorable conditions for the development of fish assemblages exported from the adjacent mangroves areas

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