Abstract

Yucatan shelf is in the confluence of two great masses of water: Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. In this area, the high planktonic production maintains ichthyc resources with commercial importance.This fauna can be evaluated from the analysis of their planktonics phases, now that they allow estimating the reproductive biomass, identify critical habitats and spawning areas. The objective of this work was to determine spawning areas, abundance and distribution of the species of commercial and gamefish importance. The analyzed samples of ichthyoplankton were taken from oceanographic research throughout the Yucatan shelf during September and November 2003. For collecting the samples superficial tows were made with a 61 cm Bongo net, during 15 minutes. A total of 5,381 organisms were collected, of this 2,065 have commercially and/or gamefish importance. These organisms belong to 20 families, 32 genus and 45 species; of these 28 are commercially important and 17 gamefish important. In both campaigns Sardinella aurita was the most abundant specie; follows by Selar crumenophthalmus and Opistonema oglinum in September and by Haemulon plumieri and S. crumenophthalmus, in November. The knowledge of the areas and seasons spawning of the commercially interest species, is essential to help to a better management and conservation of the fishing resources; specially in zones where the pressure on them is high and the abundance tends to decline

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