Fish species abundance and distribution in The Gambia estuary

Darboeencountered as far up as Papa Island. The distribution of S. gambiensis shrank byabout nine stations from around Bintang confluence to Tendaba while S. intermediusretreated from Tendaba to around Jurong and Devils points. On the whole, during thesurvey the highest recording of species occurrence was made in the lower estuarywith the exception of Banjul (station 2), and Lamin village (station 5). In this zone thehighest was recorded at Lamin point, Chitabong, Mandina bolong, Tabiere creek andMuta point and the bulk of the species that formed this included P. elongatus, I.afrcana, E. fimbriata, S. maderensis, species of the Ariidae family and the crabCallinectae latimanus. Climatically, the month of April is considered one of thehottest months in the Gambia with mean atmospheric temperatures reaching upto39.3°C. Results of the present study also characterised that month as a period ofweak freshwater discharge into the estuary (Figure 3). Fish samples taken from theestuary in April 2002 indicate ubiquitous distribution of some commercially importantspecies such as P. elongatus, P. notialis. E. fimbriata and Polydactylus quadrifili(POQ), Liza grandisquamis and L. Falcipinnis. It is during this survey that theconcentration of species throughout the estuary appears almost even with occurrencein the upper estuary almost equating with those of the lower and mid estuarine zones.UNU – Fisheries Training Programme 22