Marine fishes from Ceará State, Brazil: I - Elasmobranchii

Abstract

Elasmobranch fishes from Ceará State’s coast, Northeast Brazil, were studied under several aspects. According to the data obtained on this study, there are eight orders, 21 families, 27 genera and 42 elasmobranch species along the Ceará coast. Sharks comprise four orders (50% of the total elasmobranch from Ceará), 12 families (57.1%), 17 genera (62.9%) and 30 species (71.4%). Rays are represented by four orders (50%), nine families (42.9%), 10 genera (37.1%) and 12 species (28.6%). Coastal elasmobranch represent 38.1% of the total fauna. Oceanic species are represented by 28.6%, the oceanic/coastal are 33.3%, demersal elasmobranch represent 35.7%, pelagic are 71.4%, and reef species correspond to 42.2% of the total elasmobranch fauna of Ceará State. According to occurrence, four species are considered rare, 47.6% are frequent but not abundant, 42.8% are frequent and abundant, and 35.7% are migratory species. The population status is unknown for most elasmobranchs, corresponding to 71.4% of species. Such data suggest that future works should be dedicated to obtain more data on biological parameters on the main elasmobranch species targeted by the fisheries.