Reproductive biology of the shorthead drum Larimus breviceps (Acanthuriformes: Sciaenidae) in northeastern Brazil

Stock assessment of Larimus breviceps, a bycatch species exploited by artisanal beach seining in Northeast Brazil

“…The large beach seine fishery in Lucena encompasses an area that extends up to 600 m from the coast to a depth of 6 m beyond the surf zone that covers the first isobath into the 10-m depth range (Coutinho & Morais, 1970). The shorthead drum inhabits diverse habitats during its life, including estuaries, surf zones, and depths of up to 60 m (Cervigón, 1993;Santos et al, 2021Santos et al, , 2022. In Lucena, the large beach seine fishery operates in areas that encompass multiple habitats used by the shorthead drum, which results in a bimodal length distribution divided at the length at first maturity.…”

“…Larger and more abundant females likely contributed to enhanced reproductive success and survival of offspring (Winemiller & Layman, 2005). Furthermore, despite faster growth and older age of females, males exhibited similar allometry and ecomorphology as females (Santos et al, 2021(Santos et al, , 2022. This consistency in geometric growth facilitates implementation of management actions, such as Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRD), to mitigate impact of fishing mortality on the shorthead drum population.…”

“…For each specimen, total length (TL, cm) was measured, and sex was identified from gonad observation. Sex ratio was tested for significant deviations from 1:1 with a χ 2 test ( p < 0.05) (Dagnelie, 1975) for juveniles shorter than L 50 and adults longer than L 50 ; Santos et al, 2021).…”

“…The shorthead drum, Larimus breviceps Cuvier, 1830, is a small‐sized Sciaenidae with a maximum recorded length of 32.5 cm (Aparecido et al, 2019) that is predominantly found in coastal areas and classified as a high‐risk marine migrant species using estuaries to feed and spawn (Elliott et al, 2007; Santos et al, 2021, 2022). Its distribution spans the West Atlantic region from Costa Rica to Santa Catarina in Brazil (Cattani et al, 2011).…”

“…The shorthead drum holds significant socioeconomic importance, as bycatch and a food source for fishing crews and local communities (Bomfim et al, 2019; Lira et al, 2022; Silva‐Júnior et al, 2019). In artisanal beach seining fisheries in Brazil, this species can comprise up to 28% of total biomass (Freitas et al, 2011; Santos et al, 2021). However, despite its ecological and socioeconomic significance, understanding of basic life history of shorthead drum is limited, because research has been focused on specific locations, such as southern Brazil (Aparecido et al, 2019; Bessa et al, 2013) and the Caribbean Sea (García & Duarte, 2006).…”