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Revista de Biología Tropical

On-line version ISSN 0034-7744Print version ISSN 0034-7744

Abstract

ESPINOZA, Mario; ARIAS-ZUMBADO, Fausto; CHAVES-ZAMORA, Isaac  and  FARIAS-TAFOLLA, Beatriz. Comparison of four methods to count fish in a tropical bay: the case of the Santa Elena Bay Marine Management Area in the Pacific of Costa Rica. Rev. biol. trop [online]. 2022, vol.70, n.1, pp.235-249. ISSN 0034-7744.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/rev.biol.trop..v70i1.49729.

Introduction:

Tropical nature is experiencing an unprecedented threat that includes coastal fish communities that requires a close monitoring of species presence. The simultaneous use of several monitoring methods should reduce the bias caused by the selectivity of each method.

Objective:

This study used four different sampling methods over two years to assess and compare fish assemblages in the Santa Elena Bay Marine Management Area (AMM-BSE), North Pacific of Costa Rica.

Methods:

We examined changes in species richness and composition between upwelling and non-upwelling seasons from July 2019 and February 2020. We applied visual censuses, underwater remote cameras; bottom lines; and sport fishing.

Results:

We identified 140 species of fish (54 families); remote underwater cameras detected 83 %, followed by underwater visual censuses (65 %), sport-fishing (16 %) and bottom lines (14 %). Only the sport-fishing method detected differences in species richness and composition between seasons.

Conclusion:

Remote cameras appear to be the best method for species counts, and sport-fishing to detect seasonal differences in tropical coasts similar to the one studied here.

Keywords : fish diversity; conservation; management; ecological threats; climate change..

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