Kinds and Abundances of Fish Larvae 
in the Caribbean Sea and Adjacent Areas'»” 
WILLIAM J. RICHARDS’ 
ABSTRACT 
Fish larvae were studied from collections made in the western central Atlantic, principally the Caribbean Sea. Lar- 
vae were collected with bongo and neuston nets during two cruises of the FRV Oregon // in the summer of 1972 and 
winter of 1973. Eighty-eight families were represented in the bongo collections, and 58 families were represented in the 
neuston collections, for a total of 97 families represented overall. In the bongo tows, myctophid larvae were the most 
abundant and were represented in every collection. Gonostomatid larvae ranked second in abundance and occurred in all 
but two collections. Other abundant larvae were bothids, scarids, bregmacerotids, paralepidids, gobiids, scombrids, 
labrids, carangids, and serranids. The top 15 families accounted for 69-74% of the total larvae for both cruises. 
On the summer cruise, five stations had > 1,000 larvae under 10 m? of sea surface, with two of these near the Virgin 
Islands, one east of the Antilles, one south of Hispaniola, and one between Cuba and the Bahama Islands. On the winter 
cruise, two stations had 1,000 larvae under 10 m? of sea surface, and these were off the northern coast of Venezuela in an 
area of upwelling. This area is especially abundant in reef fishes with mid-depth fishes also common. Large concentra- 
tions of clupeids are not seen here, since they are in the Gulf of Mexico for lack of a large shelf area. Oceanic pelagic 
fishes, such as the scombrids, were only moderately abundant here compared with the eastern Atlantic. Since there is no 
major nutrient transport to most of the area, great abundances of fish are precluded. For the most part, the area is 
uniform in distribution and abundance of larvae, the exception being the northern coast of South America, an area of 
upwelling. 
INTRODUCTION 
This report deals with composition and relative abundance of 
fish larvae in the Caribbean Sea and adjacent areas, collected on 
the Marine Mapping, Assessment and Prediction Operational 
Test Phase cruises in the summer of 1972 and winter of 1973. 
(MARMAP OTP I and II, respectively). The multivessel surveys 
covered the Atlantic coast of the United States, the Atlantic 
Ocean north of Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean Sea; however, 
collections made by the FRV Oregon II (cruise 7239 in summer 
1972, and 7343 in winter 1973) form the basis for this report. Col- 
lections from the other vessels are still under study by others and 
identifications are not complete. Unfortunately, coverage was not 
identical: During the summer cruise more stations were sampled 
(64), but the cruise track was not extended across the Caribbean 
(Fig. 1); during the winter cruise fewer stations were sampled (45) 
and coverage was reduced, although the cruise track extended 
across the Caribbean on three transects (Fig. 1). 
The general outline of this report roughly parallels the two 
reports made by Ahlstrom (1971, 1972) on fish larvae from the 
eastern tropical Pacific (EASTROPAC). The collecting done in 
the Caribbean was of a much more modest nature than the 
EASTROPAC surveys, thus some of the interesting comparisons 
done by Ahlstrom cannot be included here. I also compared my 
findings with surveys made in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico by 
Houde et al.* and in the western Indian Ocean by Nellen (1973). 
‘Contribution No. 83-28 M of the Southeast Fisheries Center, National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, Miami, Fla. 
*MARMAP Contribution, Southeast Fisheries Center, National Marine 
Fisheries Service, NOAA, Miami, Fla. 
‘Southeast Fisheries Center Miami Laboratory, National Marine Fisheries Ser- 
vice, NOAA, 75 Virginia Beach Drive, Miami, FL 33149. 
“Houde, E.D., J. C. Leak, C. E. Dowd, S. A. Berkeley, and W. J. Richards. 
1979. Ichthyoplankton abundance and diversity in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. 
Report to the Bureau of Land Management under Contract No. AASS0-CT7-28. 
NTIS PB-299 839, 546 p. 
Aspects of the distribution patterns of fish larvae and the means 
used to identify them are covered. 
A brief preliminary account of this study was presented at the 
Early Life History of Fish Symposium at Woods Hole in April 
1979 (Richards 1481). 
MATERIALS AND METHODS 
Locations of the stations are given in Figure 1 and station data 
in Appendix Tables 1 and 2. Bongo and neuston net tows were 
made during these surveys. The bongo tows consisted of 61 cm 
bongo samplers fitted with conical nets of Nitex mesh with 0.505 
and 0.333 mm apertures. A flowmeter was mounted inside the net 
mouth of the 0.333 mm mesh net and a time-depth recorder was 
attached 1 m above the sampler. Nets of the 61 cm bongo sampler 
were 3.33 m long, with ratios of mouth opening to total netting 
aperture of 1:8.8 and 1:7.8 for the 0.505 and 0.333 mm mesh, 
respectively. Double-oblique tows were made with a prescribed 
payout and retrieval rate of 50 m/min and 20 m/min, respective- 
ly. Intended maximum depth was within 5 m of the bottom or 200 
m. Ship speed during the tow was held between 1.5 and 2 kn to 
maintain a 45° wire angle. The winch used on the Oregon IT was 
not designed for this type of towing, and, consequently, winch 
speed on retrieval often exceeded 20 m/min and usually ap- 
proached 35 m/min. Problems associated with weather and cur- 
rents affected the depth of tows; thus the desired depth of 200 m 
was not always met (Table 1). The high net speeds caused a great 
deal of damage to the larvae and probably contributed 
significantly to extrusion. 
The neuston net tows were surface tows with al X 2m 
neuston net, 9.4 m long, made of Nitex mesh with an aperture of 
‘Bongo samplers have been described in an unpublished manuscript by J. A. 
Posgay, R. R. Marak, and R. C. Hennemuth. 1968. Development and tests of 
new zooplankton samplers. Annual meeting of International Commission for 
the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries. Res. Doc. 85, 7 p., Northeast Fisheries 
Center, Woods Hole Laboratory, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 
Woods Hole, MA 02543. 
