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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]
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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

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