Biologia reprodutiva e pesca da Raia Dasyatis guttata (Block & Schneider, 1801) (Elasmobranchii: Dasyatidae) na plataforma continental de Pernambuco, Brasil

Abstract

In the coast of Pernambuco, Brazil's northest, Dasyatis guttata is the most commun specie of ray caught by the artisanal fishery. This study makes a analisys of the reproductive biology and its fishery along cities Ponta de Pedra, Itapissuma, Paulista, Sirinhaém and Rio Formoso. The samples accurred between august 2013 and october 2015. An amount of 167 induviduals were analysed: 94 females and 73 males. The animals were caught using ray net (call “raieira”), shrimp troll, hand line, fish-weir, beach seine and gillnet. Exceptting the ray net in the others apparels rays are bycatch. Shrimp troll and curral are responsable to imature young of the year individuals captures. All life stages were observed however 83,73% of mature individuals composed the data. Mean size at maturity were 42,03 cm disc width (WD) in males (15,70-61,50 cm WD) and 50,67 cm WD in females (13,90-87,50 cm WD). Females showed bianual spawning cicle with fecundity taxa around 2,14/embryo/female ± 0,69. Gestation takes about 5 to 6 months with parturition occurring two times a year, in may to agust and november to march, and it's connected with low rain rate. The ray gets born with 13,9-15cm LD. Low fecundities associated with the fishing effort over D. guttata may affect population, thats suggested that conservation and management measures must be taken to minimize the antropic action on the habitat of this spcies.