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Fishery Bulletin 95(1 ), 1997 
Other 9% Yellowtail snapper 2% 
Figure 4 
Fish species assemblage, based on the total weight of commercial landings in Broward 
County during 1989. Pie slices shaded with a crosshatch pattern identify species 
classified as offshore pelagics (OP), those shown as black identify species classified 
as members of the grouper-snapper (GS) complex, those shown as white identify 
unknown miscellaneous fishes (UM), those with a dot pattern identify lobsters (LB) 
landings, and those with a diagonal line pattern identify other species. 
cellaneous food fish accounted for 4.2% of Broward 
County landings in 1989. 
Discussion 
The diversity of the Broward County harvest in 1989 
was relatively low compared with that of a natural 
marine fish community in Florida. The tropical reef 
communities of the Florida Keys are some of the rich- 
est in the world; more than 500 fish species have 
been reported on Alligator Reef alone (Starck, 1968). 
Species-rich fish communities, however, are not re- 
stricted to coral reef habitats. Gilmore (1977) and 
Gilmore and Hastings ( 1983) reviewed fish collections 
associated with the Indian River system. They were 
able to compile a list of 685 species and projected 
that more than 700 species should be found in that 
region. The species richness in those studies varied 
considerably (26-275 species) from habitat to habi- 
tat. Grass flats, inlets, and offshore reefs had the 
richest fish faunas (>200 species). From offshore con- 
tinental-shelf habitats alone, more than 170 species 
were found. Anderson and Gehringer ( 1965) collected 
64 species of fish in 94 hours of trawling over the 
continental shelf of the Indian River region. 
Herrema’s (1974) marine fish collections from off 
parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties included 
583 species, although many of these are not commer- 
cially harvested or are taken in limited number for 
aquarium collectors. Nevertheless, 76 species offish 
and shellfish commercially landed from more than 
3,000 fishing trips is a poor representation of the 
fauna known to be present. 
This low species richness is, of course, a reflection 
of the selectivity of commercial fishing efforts. Only 
certain sizes of the vulnerable species are available 
to the gear and only a fraction of these are captured. 
However, it is unlikely that a catch will be restricted 
to the two or three species that were landed per trip, 
on average (Fig. 3) (Fisher et al., 1943). Fishermen 
keep only the species and sizes that have a market 
value, discarding all others. The clear seasonal 
changes in the assemblages landed reflects a balance 
between changing availability of different fish spe- 
cies to the gear and market values of the various 
species. Presumably, the commonly landed species 
were the most valuable. Offshore pelagic species, 
especially swordfish, were clearly targeted in 1989, 
as were groupers and snappers. The low summer 
