Abstract

PARAMO, JORGE et al. Poblational and ecological aspects of demersal fishes in north zone of Colombian Caribbean in relationship with habitat: a tool for identify marine protected areas (mpas) to fisheries management. Caldasia [online]. 2009, vol.31, n.1, pp.123-144. ISSN 0366-5232.

The coastal marine fisheries are threatened with collapse due to the increase of the fishing effort and the anthropogenic impacts that directly and indirectly degrade the habitat and the ecological systems of which the fishing activity depends. The bycatch and discard are equal to one third (1/3) of the total landings of biomass. Particularly, the bycatch of the shrimp trawl fishery in tropical waters represents 27% of global discard, which is a serious ecological problem for fisheries management. Therefore, there is a necessity of additional fisheries management measures to those used traditionally that contribute to protect the fishing resources and to improve fishing production. The Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have emerged as a tool for marine conservation and fisheries management. The purpose of this work is to identify potentials MPAs for the fisheries management of the demersal resources by means of an analysis of the relationship among the spatial distribution of population and ecological aspects of these resources in the northern area of the Colombian Caribbean Sea with the habitat characteristics (temperature, salinity, depth, sediment type). The relationship of population structure of demersals fishes with the habitat conditions was established, which are important when we want to identify MPAs as a tool of sustainable fisheries management under an ecosystem approach. By means of spatial modelization, the area of spatial distribution of demersal fishes was calculated (5805.8 km2) and of this, the juveniles were located between Dibulla and the Buritaca river in an area of 393.1 km2 and the area of most diversity (297.0 km2) was located in La Guajira region, which each represent 11.9% of the spatial distribution of the demersal fishes. We advise for the implementation of Multiple Use -Marine Protected Areas (MU-MPA) in these sectors, that is to say, to make limited use of the fishing resources with a system of sustainable management with the active participation of the fishersmen.

Keywords : Marine Protected Areas; fisheries management; demersal fishes; ecology; Colombian Caribbean Sea.

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