IMIS

This volume of the REVIZEE Document Series summarizes information on the identification and occurrence of the innumerable larval fish collected during the Program Assessment of the Sustainable Living Resource Potential of the Exclusive Economic Zone (REVIZEE). The study material was collected during three oceanographic cruises carried out between 1998 and 2000, in the area from the Real River (BA) to the São Tomé Cape (RJ), including submarine banks and the oceanic islands Martin Vaz and Trindade. The REVIZEE Program made possible great improvements in the knowledge of the larval fish species that constitute the ichthyoplankton community present in the area delimited by the Central SCORE. This program significantly advanced the study of larval fishes along the Brazilian coast, especially the central coast where information about larval oceanic fishes was sparse. Accurate identification of the larval fishes in a specific area is fundamentally important for assessment of fisheries resources. The great majority of marine teleost fishes have a larval stage, spending part of their life cycles in the plankton. The exploitation potential of these resources depends directly on events during this phase of their life cycle. There are many identification guides for the early life stages of fish species occurring in the North Atlantic and Indo-Pacific. However, until now there was no identification guide for larval fishes from Brazil. The present volume is a contribution to the understanding of the larval fishes occurring along the Brazilian coast, mainly those which have a mesopelagic habit. The guide provides information about 13 orders, 95 families and 156 species of larval fishes, of which nine species were recorded for the first time off Brazil. The geographical distributions of several species were extended. The chapters are arranged according to orders, and for each species provide basic information on identification, ecology and distribution along the central coast and worldwide, and the references that were used for species identification and to obtain distribution data. A complete species list includes taxa that were identified to the taxonomic level of order and family and are not represented in the plates. In addition, there is information on ichthyoplankton studies, study area, sampling and identification methodologies. A table lists the occurrence of each taxon during the three oceanographic cruises, and a glossary defines the main terms used in larval fish identification. This atlas contributes to knowledge of larval fishes from the Brazilian coast, and makes this information available to ichthyoplanktologists and to all those interested in plankton studies. We hope that this book will be only the first of many subsequent guides to larval fishes from the Brazilian coast, and that it will advance the study of these organisms in Brazil.