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Type: Articles
Published: 2011-06-17
Page range: 60–68
Abstract views: 179
PDF downloaded: 6

Checklist of conspicuous reef fishes of the Bahía de los Ángeles region, Baja California Norte, Mexico, with comments on abundance and ecological biogeography

Centro para la Biodiversidad Marina y la Conservación, La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093-0202, USA
Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, North Carolina, USA
Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste, La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093-0202, USA
Fish Reef fishes Bahía de los Ángeles Gulf of California Tropical Eastern Pacific

Abstract

A first checklist of conspicuous reef fishes observed at 15 sites in the vicinity of Bahía de los Ángeles from 2008 to 2010 is presented. A total of 70 species representing 31 families were observed. Species composition was similar to well studied regions in the southern Gulf of California, in that most species had distributions that span the Tropical Eastern Pacific but species endemic to Mexico or the Gulf of California ranked highest in relative abundance, frequency of occurrence, and mean density. Several species with temperate geographic distributions were more abundant and frequent than on reefs in the southern Gulf. Large-bodied, predatory species such as sharks and the Gulf Grouper, Mycteroperca jordani, were rare or absent.

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