Mendonça Sibele A, Macena Bruno C L, Afonso André S, Hazin Fabio H V
Laboratório de Oceanografia Pesqueira- LOP/Departamento de Pesca e Aquicultura, DEPAq/Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco - UFRPE, Recife, Brazil.
Departamento de Oceanografia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - UFPE - Cidade Universitária, Recife, Brazil.
J Fish Biol. 2018 Dec;93(6):1121-1129. doi: 10.1111/jfb.13829.
The present study aimed to analyse occurrence patterns, relative abundance and habitat use by the sicklefin devil ray Mobula tarapacana in the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SPSPA), Brazil, located in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Sampling was conducted between December 2008 and December 2012 by surface surveys and tagging with conventional tags and acoustic transmitters. Mobula tarapacana were sighted in the SPSPA year round but the highest frequency of occurrence was observed from January to June, probably due to greater food availability during this season. However, M. tarapacana might also use the area for reproductive purposes based on evidence of mating behaviour. The residency period of tagged rays measured by three autonomous acoustic receivers deployed around SPSPA spanned from 1 to 74 days with most of the detections occurring during daytime. These results suggest that the SPSPA could be an ecologically-important aggregation area for M. tarapacana, possibly providing the species with a feeding or resting habitat while transiting in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean.
本研究旨在分析巴西位于大西洋中脊的圣彼得和圣保罗群岛（SPSPA）内镰鳍鬼蝠魟（Mobula tarapacana）的出现模式、相对丰度及栖息地利用情况。2008年12月至2012年12月期间，通过海面调查以及使用传统标签和声学发射器进行标记来开展采样工作。镰鳍鬼蝠魟全年均在SPSPA被目击到，但出现频率最高的时段为1月至6月，这可能是由于该季节食物供应更为充足。不过，基于交配行为的证据，镰鳍鬼蝠魟也可能将该区域用于繁殖目的。通过部署在SPSPA周边的三个自主声学接收器测量，被标记魟鱼的居留期为1至74天，大部分探测发生在白天。这些结果表明，SPSPA可能是镰鳍鬼蝠魟在生态方面重要的聚集区域，在该物种于赤道大西洋迁徙过程中，可能为其提供觅食或休息的栖息地。
