Aspectos biométricos y variabilidad estacional de las principales especies capturadas con chinchorro de playa en la zona costera de Los Esteros, cantón Manta – Ecuador.

Abstract

The present study was conducted on the coast of Manta, specifically in the Esteros sector. The sampling period was 11 months from January to November 2022. The population structure of the size and frequency of occurrence of the different species of fish that were caught with the fishing gear known as beach chinchorro during the two seasons of the year was analyzed. It was determined that the fish species identified correspond to three pelagic habitats with 42.5%, demersal with 42.5% and benthic with 15%. The variability of the composition of the species captured was composed of 25 fish families and 42 fish species, with 6 families predominating during the study. Regarding the seasonal variability of the frequency of occurrence, it was determined that in the wet season there was more variety with a total of 21 fish families, while in the dry season only 17 families were recorded. Of all the species recorded, 7 fish species predominated: Anchoa ischana, Cetengraulis mysticetus, Diapterus aureolus, Haemulopsis leuciscus, Oligoplites saurus, Opisthonema libertate and Sphyraena ensis. Regarding the biometric aspects, it was concluded that the size structure of all the identified species was characterized by small sizes below the size of sexual maturity; this characteristic was recorded in the wet and dry seasons. The variation of the condition factor of the main species recorded varied very little between seasons with the exception of the species Cetengraulis mysticetus that presented a condition status of 0.63 in the dry season and 0.75 in the wet season.