Teleostei fishes of the North Coast of Brazil and adjacent areas

Abstract

The North Coast of Brazil is a biogeographical area of the Exclusive Economic Zone of Brazil that share environmental features with region under influence of the Plume of the rio Amazon and Orinoco. Despite the relevance of the region’s fish fauna, in biogeo-graphic, ecologic, and commercial terms, this area is poorly known. This study presents the most complete and updated list of the bony fish fauna from the North Coast of Brazil, aiming to minimize our knowledge gap on such region's biodiversity. The main sources of infor-mation were records from zoological collections, inventories obtained during the surveys of the Research and Conservation National Center of Northern Marine Biodiversity and collec-tions from the authors. A total of 787 species of the Teleostei were recorded off the North Coast of Brazil and adjacent waters, representing 156 families and 45 orders. Most (531) of these species are coastal, 256 inhabit deeper water, and 31 pelagic (oceanic) species are com-mon to both the internal and external continental shelf, of which 54 represent new records. Given the progressive intensification of fisheries and increasing incentives for the exploita-tion of the local gas and oil reserves, a more adequate inventory of the marine fish fauna of the North Coast of Brazil is fundamentally important for the management of the region’s aquatic biodiversity.