Fishes from Lake Yaxhá, Mayan Biosphere Reserve, Petén, Guatemala

By

Barrientos, Christian
Elías, Diego
Quintana, Yasmín

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2015-9-25

Original Publication

Check list : journal of species lists and distribution

Volume

11

Series / Issue

Issue: 5

Pages

1751--7

Subjects

artisanal fishery , Central America , electrofishing , ichthyofauna , Mayan Biosphere Reserve

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

[São Paulo, Brazil] Luís Felipe Toledo 2005-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15560/11.5.1751

 

Abstract

The Mayan Biosphere Reserve is the largest protected area in Guatemala. Lake Yaxhá is located inside the core zone. Using electrofishing, seines and gillnets we assessed the fish richness and community in 2011. We collected 18 species distributed in seven families, with Cichlidae (seven species) and Poecilidae (five species) the most specious. We evaluated the effectiveness of electrofishing to sample the most important fish in the artisanal fishery in Petén, Petenia splendida, with September being the month with the highest capture per unit of effort. Lake Yaxhá assemblage was similar to the Usumacinta through a hierarchical cluster analysis, despite being located in the Mopan-Hondo basin. Lake Yaxhá is the only system in the area that does not have non-native fish species, emphasizing the importance of conservation of this lentic system in the Mayan Biosphere Reserve.