Volume 55
Abundance of Strombus gigas Larvae in the North of the Yucatan Península
Authors
Pérez-Pérez, M.; Aldana-Aranda, D.; Patiño-Suárez, V. Download PDF Open PDF in BrowserOther Information
Date: 2004
Pages: 986
Event: Proceedings of the Fifty Fifth Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
City: Xel Ha
Country: Mexico
Abstract
An abundance study of Strombus gigas larvae was realized at north of Yucatan Peninsula, between Caribe Sea and the Alacranes reef, into isobaths of 5 m and 50 m. This study was at july and october of 2001 and march of 2002 in 27 sites. Plankton tows were made for 15 minutes at 1 m/s with a bongo net that had a 0.5 m diameter opening and 202 µm mesh size. Plankton samples were preserved in a 10% neutral formaldehyde-seawater mixture. In the laboratory, the entire volume of each plankton sample was sorted for Strombus veligers following the descriptions of Davis et al. (1993). The Strombus populations at north of Yucatan Peninsula are included Strombus gigas (Arrecife Alacranes) and Strombus costatus (all north coast of Peninsula de Yucatan). The high abundance of Strombus larvae (600 larvae/tows) were collected for july, at NW study area into Alacranes reef. At NE of Yucatan Península we found a density of 4 larvae/tows. At N of study area we do not found Strombus larvae. With the results we concluded that Alacranes reef is an important area for larval supply to Strombus gigas nurseries in the north of Yucatan Peninsula.