Abstract

Knowledge of the diversity and distribution of early life stages of fish is crucial in evaluating the efficacy of protected areas. In the Special Fishery Conservation Area (SFCA) of Discovery Bay, Jamaica, the diversity and temporal distribution of the early life stages have been sparsely studied. We therefore compared the effectiveness of light traps and plankton nets to study the species richness and composition of larval fish in the SFCA from February to November 2014. Using both gears, we were able to account for approximately 75% of the species present in the bay which comprised 42 families and 44 species of predominantly reef-associated species of varied sizes. The catch from both gear types was dominated by the Clu-peidae, Pomacentridae, Labrisomidae and Gobiidae families, contrastingly the commercially important families such as Lutjanidae, Haemulidae and Serranidae, were scarcely caught. A time series analysis detected a seasonal pattern (using temperature and photoperiod as variables) in larval fish abun-dance in the sample area with the peak abundance occurring during summer months. Although small temperature increases might favour larval development, the vulnerability of spawning events and growth of early life stages of fish to temperature changes as associated with the effects of climate change, should not be overlooked. The crucial role that larval fish play in the sustainability of our fisheries and the potential impact of climate change combined with overfishing highlights the im-portance of incorporating larval fish assessments in the ecological monitoring of marine reserves.

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