CARTILAGINOUS FISHES (CLASS CHONDRICHTHYES) OFF CEARÁ STATE, BRAZIL, WESTERN EQUATORIAL ATLANTIC - AN UPDATE

Abstract

Currently, approximately 1,100 species of Chondrichthyes (sharks, batoids and chimaeras) are known worldwide. The most  recent checklist for Brazilian waters compiled 160 elasmobranch species (sharks and rays). Nevertheless, the full extent of knowledge  about Chondrichthyan species richness in Brazil is far from being reached, since faunal inventories are still lacking. This is due to  insufficient funding for research and conservation. Cartilaginous fishes are low priority for research funding because they are usually  non-target species in fisheries. Until now, 50 elasmobranch species were known to occur in waters off Ceará State, Northeastern Brazil.  The goal of this study was to update the record of cartilaginous fishes occurring off Ceará. The new records were obtained during  industrial fisheries on-board monitoring as well as industrial and small-scale fisheries landings monitoring, and one research cruise.  This was complemented with examination of specimens at one local ichthyological collection, literature records, and photographs. The  eight new records are:  Cirrhigaleus asper, Breviraja cf.  spinosa, Dipturus sp., Dasyatis geijskesi ,  Himantura cf.  schmardae ,  Manta birostris ,  Mobula thurstoni , and  Hydrolagus sp. In addition, information on the occurrence of  Rhinobatos lentiginosus was also obtained. These new records presented represent a 18% increase in the number of cartilaginous fish species reported for the  State, which now sums up to a total of 59 species.