ENSO and crustacean populations of Perú: Are the landings records related to the sea sur-face temperature (SST)?

ASOREY, CYNTHIA; CALCAGNO JAVIER,; LOVRICH, GUSTAVO A.

Monterrey

Congreso; 98th Annual Meeting National Shellfish Association; 2006

National Shellfish Association

The marine ecosystem of the south eastern Pacific is made up of a particular system of superficial currents that make the coasts of Chile and Peru some of the world’s most productive fishing zones. There have been few studies done about the population dynamics of commercial crustaceans and ENSO. This unconcern is probably due to the low economic value of these species, when compared to other commercial ones. In this work, mean and maximum temperatures registered at the Chicama station (07° 41' S, 79° 26' W), between 1970 and 1999 were correlated with the crustacean landing records of the Instituto del Mar del Peru. We found a positive correlation between the total crustacean landings of shrimp species (Litopenaeus spp., Farfantepeneaeus californiensis y Xyphopeneaeus riveti) and both the annual mean temperatures (r=0.43, p<0.05) and the maximum temperatures (r=0.39, P< 0.05) . We also found a negative but not significant, correlation (r=-0.22 for the mean SST and r= -0.28 for the maximum SST, p>0.05), for the crab species (Cancer sp, Platyxanthus sp). These results coincide with earlier works that report on the increase of mortality rates and migrations to deeper water of crab species. Coincidently, during the ENSO, commercial shrimps move south from off Ecuador to off Perú, where fishers adapt their fishing arts to catch shrimp.