VARIACIÓN ESTACIONAL DE LA ABUNDANCIA DE ESPECIES DE PECES SELECCIONADAS EN EL SUBLITORAL ROCOSO DE CIUDAD DE LA HABANA, CUBA.

The abundance of the most common fishes of a fringe reef at Havana City was estimated using monthly visual censuses from 2001 to 2003. The site was divided in five biotopes according to bottom characteristics. Five random sampling units of 25 m² were defined on each biotope using a square frame. All the fishes of the species Stegastes partitus (Poey, 1868), Thalassoma bifasciatum (Bloch, 1791), Halichoeres bivittatus (Bloch, 1791) and Acanthurus bahianus (Castelnau, 1855) were counted. Most of the species had it's maximal abundance on the rainy season and at 12-15 m depth. Stegastes partitus and Thalassoma bifasciatum were the most abundant species and they had two abundance maxima: one in February and other in June and August respectively. Halichoeres bivittatus juveniles predominated at the 15m depth and the adults were at 3m depth, which suggest that this species spawns in shallow waters and the settlement of juvenile, after the larval stage, occurs at deeper waters. Acanthurus bahianus was the less abundant species of those included in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]