A Seasonal Survey of the Fish Larve Assemblages of Coastal and Oceanic Waters in the Central Mexican Pacific during 2010

Samples of fish larvae collected in January-June and October 2010 in three parallel transects to the coast of Jalisco, Colima and Michoacan states (10, 50 and 100 nm respectively) were carried out. Zooplankton samples were obtained by oblique tows with a bongo net, and fish larvae obtained in the 500 microns net were analyzed. A total of 67 taxa belonging to 37 families were found, the most abundant species were: Bregmaceros bathymaster, Dormitator latifrons, Vinciguerria lucetia, Diogenichthys laternatus, Auxis sp., and Diaphus pacificus.  The results of the analysis of non-metric scaling (nMDS) show that the distance to the coast is the most determinant factor in the structure of larval fish assemblages. Species associated to the coastline were Caranx caballus y Bothus leopardinus. The species that typified to the intermediate distance (50 nm) to the coast were Chloroscombrus orqueta, Syacium ovale and Bregmaceros bathymaster, and the species associated to oceanic zone were Monolene asaedai, Euthynnus lineatus, Vinciguerria lucetia and Anchoa sp. Despite the presence of coastal upwelling in June, seasonal changes in the fish larve assemblages were not found, due probably to the low variability of the values of SST among summer-spring caused by the El Niño event in early 2010.