Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T01:50:09.999Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Juvenile fish assemblages in the creeks of the Gambia Estuary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2004

Guy Vidy ,
Famara Sambou Darboe  and
Ebou Mass Mbye
Guy Vidy*
Affiliation:
IRD, BP 1386 Dakar, Senegal
Famara Sambou Darboe
Affiliation:
Fisheries Department 6, Muammar Ghadafi Avenue, Banjul, The Gambia
Ebou Mass Mbye
Affiliation:
Fisheries Department 6, Muammar Ghadafi Avenue, Banjul, The Gambia
*
[email protected]
Get access

Abstract

A fyke net survey of the juvenile and small fish assemblage of the Gambia estuary was conducted on three sampling occasions during the maximum recruitment season, from May to November 2002. This is the first detailed description of that particular component of the fish community in the Gambia estuary. The overall fyke net fish assemblage comprised 51 species, with a majority of young individuals of large and medium size species and the adults of small species. This assemblage is defined as the “small fish component of the mangrove channels”. The assemblage is dominated by true estuarine and certain marine species, all able to complete their life cycle within the estuary. The sea spawning species whose juveniles use the estuary mainly as a nursery ground, are not very diverse or abundant during the recruitment season. They are limited to the lowest part of the estuary due to the low salinity prevailing in the middle and upper reaches during the rainy season. This suggests that extreme seasonal variability (river flooding) in certain West African tropical estuaries at the time of maximum recruitment by certain marine species may reduce the nursery ground value for these taxa.

Keywords

EstuaryMangroveJuvenile fishNurseryMatch-mismatchWest Africa
Type
Research Article
Information
Aquatic Living Resources , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 2004 , pp. 56 - 64
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, IFREMER, IRD, 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albaret, J.-J., Diouf, P.S., 1994, Diversité des poissons des lagunes et des estuaires ouest-africains. In: Teugels, G.G., Guégan, J.-F, Albaret, J.-J. (Eds.) – Biological diversity in African fresh and brackish water fishes: geographical overviews: PARADI symposium - 15-20 novembre 1993, Saly, SEN. Ann. Mus. R. Afr. Cent. Sci. Zool. 275, 165-177.
Albaret J.-J., 1999, Les peuplements des estuaires et des lagunes. In: Lévêque C., Paugy D. (Eds.), Les poissons des eaux continentales africaines : diversité, écologie, utilisation par l'homme. IRD éditions, Paris, pp. 325-349.
Albaret, J.-J., M. Simier, F.S. Darboe, J.M. Ecoutin, J. Raffray, L. Tito de Morais, 2004, Fish diversity and distribution in the Gambia Estuary, West Africa, in relation to environmental variables. Aquat. Living Resour. 17, 35-46. CrossRef
Day J.H., Deegan L.A., 1988, Nekton, the free swimming consumers. In: Day J.W. Jr C.A.S. Hall, W.M. Kemp Yañez-Arancibia A. (Eds.), Estuarine Ecology John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp. 377-437.
Dorr III J.A., Schneeberger H.T., Tin H.T., Flath I.E., 1985, Studies on adults, juvenile and larval fishes of the Gambia River, West Africa, 1983-1984, In Great Lakes and Marine Waters Centre International Programs reports, The University of Michigan, 11.
Laegdsgaard, P., Johnson, C, 2001, Why do juvenile fish utilise mangrove habitats, J. Exper. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 257, 229-253. CrossRef
Miller J.M., Reed J.P., 1982, Patterns, mechanisms and approaches to the study of migrations of estuarine dependent fish larvae and juveniles. In: Mc Cleave, J.D. Arnold G.P., Dodson J.J., Neill W.H. (Eds.), Mechanisms of migration in fishes., NATO Conf. Ser. IV. Marine science, pp. 209-225.
Potter, I.C., Beckley, L.E., Whitfield, A.K., Lenanton, C.J., 1990, Comparisons between the roles played by estuaries in the life cycle of fishes in temperate Western Australia and Southern Africa, Environ. Biol. Fishes 28, 143-178. CrossRef
Ross S.W., Epperly S.P., 1985, Utilization of shallow estuarine nursery areas by fishes in Pamlico sound and adjacent tributaries, North Carolina. In: Yanez-Aranciba A. (Ed.), Fish community ecology in estuaries and coastal lagoons: Towards an Ecosystem integration, pp. 207-232.
Sasekumar A., Chong V.C., Leh M.U., Da Cruz R., 1992, Mangroves as a Habitat for Fish and Prawns Hydrobiologia 247, 195-207.
Savenije, H.H.G., Pages, J., 1992, Hypersalinity: a dramatic change in the hydrology of Sahelian estuaries. J. Hydrol. 135, 157-174. CrossRef
Vidy, G., 2000, Estuarine and mangrove systems and the nursery concept: which is which? The case of the Sine Saloum system (Senegal) Wetlands Ecol. Manage. 8, 37-51.
Wagner C.M., 1999. Expression of the Estuarine Species Minimum in Littoral Fish Assemblages of the Lower Chesapeake Bay Tributaries. Estuaries 22, 304-312.
Whitfield, A.K., 1983, Factors influencing the utilisation of southern African estuaries by fishes. S. Afr. J. Sci. 79, 362-365.
Whitfield, A.K., 1999, Ichthyofaunal Assemblages in Estuaries: a South African Case Study. Rev. Fish Biol. Fish. 9, 151-186. CrossRef