Distribution and relative abundance of the pointed venus, Anomalocardia brasiliana , at Mangue Seco Beach, Pernambuco State, Brazil

Abstract

The species Anomalocardia brasiliana is a marine bivalve mollusk that has great economic and social importance  to artisanal fisheries in the Brazilian coast. This study aimed to evaluate its distribution and abundance at Mangue Seco  Beach, Pernambuco State, by estimating its parameters and relating them to individual length ,  temperature, salinity and  sediment grain size. The substrate of the studied area is comprised by 90% sand, salinity ranges from 26 in June to 37 in  January and temperature ranges from 24°C in January to 37.6 o C in December. The highest average density recorded was  263.6 org/m² in December, 2010 and the lowest was 127.4 org/m² in January, 2011. A direct trend of variation was found  to exist between density and individual size, for which a mean value was registered as 16.5±5.7 mm, a finding that may  have been caused by high fishing effort on the stock owing to an increase in demand for consumption of the pointed venus.