ABSTRACT: Cabo Pulmo National Park is among the most successful protected areas in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and harbors the most northern coral reef in that region. The objective of this paper was to update the latest published checklist of fishes at the park. Over 500 censuses were conducted between 2004 and 2017. In addition, an extensive bibliographic review was conducted of records published on the local ichthyofauna from 2001 to 2017. As a result, 68 new records of reef fish species were added to the Cabo Pulmo reef checklist, corresponding to 13 orders, 35 families and 51 genera. With these additions, the current updated checklist consists of 302 species, corresponding to 194 genera, 74 families, and 22 orders.
Keywords: Taxonomic arrangementTaxonomic arrangement,RichnessRichness,BiomassBiomass,DistributionDistribution,RangeRange.
RESUMEN: El Parque Nacional Cabo Pulmo está entre las áreas protegidas más exitosas del Océano Pacífico Oriental, y alberga el arrecife coralino más septentrional de la región. El objetivo de este trabajo fue actualizar el último listado publicado de peces presentes en el parque. Se realizaron observaciones de especímenes en más de 500 inmersiones, los censos fueron llevados a cabo entre 2004 y 2017, adicionalmente, se obtuvieron registros de una extensa revisión bibliográfica acerca de la ictiofauna local publicados entre 2001 y 2017. Aquí se agregan 68 nuevos registros de especies de peces arrecifales presentes en el arrecife de Cabo Pulmo, estos corresponden a 13 órdenes, 35 familias y 51 géneros. Con estas adiciones, el listado actual consiste en 302 especies, correspondientes a 194 géneros, 74 familias y 22 órdenes.
Palabras clave: Arreglo taxonómico, riqueza, biomasa, distribución, rango.
Artículo
Updated checklist of fishes at Cabo Pulmo reef, Gulf of California, Mexico
Listado actualizado de peces del arrecife de Cabo Pulmo, Golfo de California, México
Received: 20 September 2017
Revised document received: 12 January 2018
Accepted: 22 January 2018
Cabo Pulmo National Park (23° 30’ N, 109° 30’ W), located in the southeastern coast of the Baja California Peninsula (Fig. 1), is the most northern reef with presence of coral patches in the eastern Pacific Ocean (Brusca & Thomson, 1975). Because of the involvement of local communities and the support of the local and federal government, academic institutions and nongovernmental organizations, the status of the park is excellent, to the point that Cabo Pulmo has been recognized as one of the healthiest marine areas in the world, and among the most relevant sites for conservation in the western coast of Mexico (Aburto-Oropeza et al. 2011; Reyes-Bonilla et al. 2014; Enochs & Glynn, 2017). For those reasons, in 1995 the Mexican reef was declared a national park: Parque Nacional Cabo Pulmo (www.conanp.gob.mx), and research in the area has improved noticeably in quality and quantity.
Species inventories in the area are adequate, as listings for algae (Mateo-Cid et al. 2000), reef corals, gorgonians (Reyes-Bonilla et al. 1997), polychaetes, (Bastida-Zavala, 1995), arthropods (García-Madrigal & Bastida-Zavala, 1999), echinoderms (Cintra-Buenrostro et al. 1998) and fishes are available. In the latter case, Villarreal-Cavazos et al. (2000) published a thorough checklist prepared from visual observations and literature available to that date. Later, Alvarez-Filip et al. (2006), Reyes-Bonilla and Alvarez-Filip (2008), Saldívar-Lucio and Reyes-Bonilla (2011), Aburto-Oropeza et al. (2011), as well as the park administration (Anonymous, 2006) presented data and mentioned the occurrence of diverse fish species in the reef; however, all of them were already included in the 2000 compilation. Notwithstanding, thanks to continuous visits to the reef to monitor the reef fish community condition, a number of sightings of other species have been accumulating to the point that a new revision was needed. For that reason, the objective of this paper is to update the known checklist of fishes present at Cabo Pulmo National Park, based on confirmed observations of specimens in the area.
The authors have visited the locality yearly since 2004 as part of a continuous monitoring program of the marine assemblages. Records of fishes were made by divers using three techniques: roving searches, belt transects of 20 x 5 m in size (100 m2 each), and stationary point counts in observation cylinders with a radius of 5 m (78.5 m2 total area). Over 500 censuses were conducted between 2004 and 2017 using transects and cylinders and approximately 200 used roving searches. In addition to the field information, references on the local fish fauna published from 2001 to 2017 were reviewed (21 papers in total); citations were searched using the following databases: Web of Science, Aquatic and Science Fisheries Abstracts, Scopus, and Google Scholar, and Robertson and Allen (2015).
All records not included in the previous checklist by Villarreal-Cavazos et al. (2000) were tabulated; their nomenclature, taxonomic validity and current classification into higher taxa were confirmed by consulting the Catalog of Fishes of the California Academy of Sciences (Eschmeyer et al. 2017) and the Shorefishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific Online Information System (Robertson & Allen, 2015). A final listing was generated representing additions to the previous knowledge.
As indicated in Table 1, there are 68 new confirmed records of fish species present at Cabo Pulmo reef obtained from 2001 to 2017, corresponding to 13 orders, 35 families and 51 genera. These taxa do not share similar characteristics: they belong to many dissimilar taxonomic groups, are very different sizes, and reside in different locations, either in the reef, the surrounding sandy areas or in the water column. Another important result is the taxonomic change of 34 species previously reported by Villarreal-Cavazos et al. (2000) (Table 2). Table 2 also includes amendments as taxonomists have placed a number of species of the listing by Villarreal-Cavazos et al. (2000) in different families or orders after the year 2000. Finally, there was a major taxonomic change: the classes used by Villareal-Cavazos et al. (2000), such as Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes, are now respectively named Elasmobranchii and Actinopterygyii (Eschmeyer et al. 2017).
Table 1. Systematic list of fish species reported or observed at Cabo Pulmo reef, Gulf of California, Mexico. Reference number 1 corresponds to 69 new records obtained between 2001 and 2017 from museums/collections, databases, bibliographic references and field observations, and number 2 corresponds to species previously listed by Villarreal-Cavazos et al. (2000)
(Table 1).
A total of 68 confirmed species and 4 orders (Elopiformes, Gonorynchiformes, Myliobatiformes and Torpediniformes) was added to the previous list of 236 species seen or found at the reef, corresponding to 18 orders, 60 families and 155 genera (Villarreal-Cavazos et al. 2000). Consequently, the current checklist consists of 302 species, corresponding to 194 genera, 74 families and 22 orders. This amount represents approximately 30% of the 840 to 911 fishes reported at the Gulf of California (Hastings et al. 2011; Robertson & Allen, 2015), and is comparable with the amount found in other areas with coral reef communities in western Mexico and for which detailed checklists exist, such as Concepción Bay 26°N with 146 species (Rodríguez-Romero et al. 2005), La Paz 24°N: 522 species (Balart et al. 1995), Banderas Bay 20°N: 205 species (Moncayo-Estrada et al. 2006), Navidad Bay 19°N: 245 species (Aguilar-Palomino et al. 2001), Acapulco 16°N: 302 species (Rojas-Herrera et al. 2011), and Huatulco 15°N:112 species (López-Pérez et al. 2010). This observation is remarkable considering the small size of Cabo Pulmo reef (less than 1000 ha) (Anonymous, 2006) and gives more evidence of the recognized high species diversity of the site (Aburto-Oropeza et al. 2011).
It is interesting to note that 22 (31%) of the new records pertain to sharks and rays, of which only 10 species had previously been reported at Cabo Pulmo (Villarreal-Cavazos et al. 2000; Anonymous 2006; Reyes-Bonilla et al. 2016). This means that the number of these taxa has more than doubled at the reef. Although there is no quantitative data to document it, the authors’ observations point out that, in fact, the number of elasmobranch species commonly seen at the reefs and surroundings has increased noticeably since 2005, to the point that shark observation is now a local tourist attraction, and large schools of eagle rays and other species are frequently seen hovering below the surface. It can be assumed that the good status of the system has favored this situation as fish biomass in the area has increased over 200% between the beginning and the end of the last decade, a condition that favors the presence of large predators (Aburto-Oropeza et al. 2011; Reyes-Bonilla et al. 2016; Enochs & Glynn 2017).
In addition to the 302 species documented in Cabo Pulmo reef, the maps by Robertson and Allen (2015) indicate the possible presence of another 243 species, considering the general geographic distribution range of the species that reside in the Gulf of California. As these diagrams represent interpolations of the northernmost and southernmost reported ranges of the species, they should be taken carefully in order to avoid overestimations of the total number of fish species at any given location (in this case, Cabo Pulmo). Nevertheless, the possibility of finding new records in the locality is open.
In conclusion, this paper adds 68 species to the original checklist of 236 fish taxa that had been reported or collected at Cabo Pulmo reef, generating a new total of 302 species. Such richness is high enough to be comparable to the one reported in other reefs of the western coast of Mexico (even though Cabo Pulmo reef is relatively small), and demonstrate the importance of this area for fish biodiversity in the Gulf of California.
suppl1.pdf (pdf) Systematic list of fish species reported or observed at Cabo Pulmo reef, Gulf of California, Mexico. Reference number 1 corresponds to 69 new records obtained between 2001 and 2017 from museums/collections, databases, bibliographic references and field observations, and number 2 corresponds to species previously listed by Villarreal-Cavazos et al. (2000)
suppl1.pdf (pdf) Systematic list of fish species reported or observed at Cabo Pulmo reef, Gulf of California, Mexico. Reference number 1 corresponds to 69 new records obtained between 2001 and 2017 from museums/collections, databases, bibliographic references and field observations, and number 2 corresponds to species previously listed by Villarreal-Cavazos et al. (2000)
We would like to thank Vladimir Pérez, María Martínez, Nuria Torrejón, Georgina Ramírez, Alexandra Álvarez del Castillo, Jenny Carolina (UABCS), Carlos Godínez (CONANP), Bryan Castro, Mario Castro, David Castro, Luis Castro (Cabo Pulmo Dive Center) for their support and participation in the underwater monitoring of this project and the search for online databases. Our final thanks go to the three anonymous reviewers for their highly constructive criticisms to improve the contents and structure of this paper.