Checklist of the fish fauna of the Araçá Bay , São Sebastião Channel , northern coast of São Paulo , Brazil

This paper presents for the first time a checklist of the fish fauna of Araçá Bay, São Sebastião Channel, northern coast of São Paulo state, Brazil. Fishes were sampled in five surveys from October 2012 to February 2014 using nine different types of sampling gear during high tide. Tide pool fishes were also sampled in four surveys from March to October 2014. Geographic distribution and conservation status of each species are reported. A total of 126 species was recorded in Araçá Bay, including two non-native species and new records in the São Sebastião region for 16 species. The fish species richness found in Araçá Bay was greater than the previously recorded for the São Sebastião Channel and other adjacent areas. Most of the Araçá fish species show a wide distribution along the western Atlantic Ocean (32%). Few species are included in the international (29%) and Brazilian (3.3%) official lists of threatened species.


INTRODUCTION
Araçá Bay is a large tidal flat ecosystem located in São Sebastião Channel (SSC) on the northern coast of São Paulo state, adjacent to the São Sebastião Port (Figure 1).It harbors an exceptionally rich macrofauna, including one of the last relicts of mangrove on the São Sebastião coast (Amaral et al. 2010).The port was built in 1936, and since then, its operation, expansion and consequent surrounding urbanization have severely affected the bay's biodiversity (Migotto et al. 1993;Zanardi et al. 1999;Amaral and Nallin 2011).Furthermore, in the 1980s, a submarine sewer was built in the bay, which has caused drastic changes on its morphology and circulation (Teodoro et al. 2011;Amaral et al. 2010;Migotto et al. 1993).Currently, there is a project to expand the São Sebastião Port toward the bay.A loss of habitat and an increase in water pollution is expected along with the port expansion, and these are expected to affect the bay's ecosystem and consequently its fish community (Consultoria Paulista de Estudos Ambientais 2011).
Several studies of the benthic fauna have been carried out at Araçá Bay (Migotto et al. 1993;Arruda and Amaral 2003;Petracco et al. 2013;Corte et al. 2014;Gorman et al. 2015), but the fish fauna of this bay is still largely unknown, despite its high importance for local fishermen.Available information of the fish fauna is restricted to bottom-trawl surveys (Muto et al. 2000;Rossi-Wongtschowski et al. 2008) and diving surveys (Gibran and Moura 2012) conducted in São Sebastião Channel and on the adjacent continental shelf.
Checklists of species are essential for effective management of ecosystems, as well as for development of conservation plans and environmental impact studies (Silveira 2011;Mace 2004;Hellman and Fowlle 1999).Additionally, comprehensive local inventories may increase our knowledge of the distribution ranges of species and thus provide support to biogeographical and macroecological studies (Silveira et al. 2010).Here, we provide a checklist of fishes from Araçá Bay.We include their geographic distributions and conservation status.The efficiency of the sampling gear used here, and the spatial and temporal variability in the species composition and abundance of the bay will be addressed in future studies.

MATERIALs AND METHODs
Araçá Bay is composed by four sand beaches, two small islets, three small mangrove patches and a large sand-mud sediment tidal plain.It is limited northward by a rockfill and southward by rocky shores (Figure 1).The maximum depth of the bay is 10 m at its mouth, becoming shallower towards its inner part.At high tide during neap tides, the mean depth from the inner part of the bay to the islets is 0.73 ± 0.25 m (SD), and from Check List 12(6): 2004, 29 November 2016 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.15560/12.6.2004ISSN 1809-127X © 2016 Check List and Authors

Lists of species
Lamas et al. | Ichthyofauna from Araçá Bay, São Sebastião Channel random and independent deployments in each sector. 2. One otter trawl (two paired nets each with 9.5 m opening, 6.7 m cod-end, and 10 mm between adjacent knots) was operated in the shallow and outer sublittoral, performing four and three random and independent 100 m tows, respectively.3. Two encircling gillnets were deployed; one (590 m long, 3 m high, and 30 mm stretched mesh) was used in the shallow sublittoral with two random and independent deployments; another encircling gillnet (220 m long, 2.6 m hight, and 32 mm stretched mesh) was used in the intertidal, with one deployment at Mãe Isabel creek (Figure 1), and two deployments in the inner sublittoral, one near the rocky shore located south the islets to the bay's mouth is of 1.16 ± 0.53 m.The bay's configuration prevents it from being directly influenced by the relatively strong SSC hydrodynamics, thus, the main abiotic driver in the bay is the tide (Amaral et al. 2010;Gubitoso et al. 2008).
For our purposes, we divided the bay into three sectors: intertidal, shallow sublittoral and outer sublittoral (Figure 1).Fishes were collected in five surveys: October 2012, March, July, October 2013 and January 2014.The nine types of gear used in each survey and the number and location of deployments are described below: 1.One cast-net (6.65 m diameter with a 10 mm monofilament mesh between adjacent knots) was used in both intertidal and shallow sublittoral sectors, with 18 of the inner sublittoral and another near the port.4. Two gillnets, with net 1 (154 m × 2.6 m with 32 mm stretched mesh) deployed between the two inlets in the intertidal, and net 2 (longer part = 154 m × 3.3 m and smaller part = 85.8 m × 3.15 m; 50 mm stretched mesh at both parts) deployed in the southern part of the inner sublittoral from the shore (Figure 1).Each net was operated over 12 hours (~ 7 p.m. to ~ 7 a.m.), being checked at each 2 hours.5. Six fish traps (150 cm wide × 53 cm long × 37 cm high, 15 mm monofilament line mesh) deployed over the rocky bottom in the southern part of the outer sublittoral.6.One beach seine (20 m long × 3 m high, with a 15 m long bag) performing 4 to 5 tows in the margins of the intertidal and 1 to 3 tows in the margins of the inner subtidal.7. One set of handline (15 to 20 size 6 hooks baited with sardines) used over the rocky bottom of the southern part of the outer sublittoral (Figure 1).
One night was required to operate each gear (except for the fish trap, which was continuously operated throughout the day and night over five successive days, and the handline, which was operated in the daytime from approximately 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.).After the captures, fishes were stored in ice and transported to the laboratory to be identified.
Fishes inhabiting tide pools were sampled during low tide of spring tide in four surveys: March, June, August, and October 2014.The fishes were captured (I) with hand net in the rock and rock-sand pools after dissolving a clove oil solution (4% in alcohol); and (II) with a mosquito-screen-made beach seine (2.5 m long, 3.0 mm mesh) and hand nets in soft-sediment pools (for more details on the sampling procedure, see Brenha-Nunes et al. 2016).All specimens were preserved in 70% alcohol solution and later identified in laboratory.
The taxonomic identity of the specimens was identified based on Figueiredo (1977), Figueiredo and Menezes (1978, 1980and 2000), Menezes andFigueiredo (1980 and1985) and on Carpenter (2002aCarpenter ( , 2002bCarpenter ( and 2002c)).The taxonomic classification follows Eschmeyer (2014).The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation granted permission for the capture and transportation of the fishes (Permit No. 5574607).Species vouchers are deposited in the Zoological Museum of the University of São Paulo.Voucher numbers are presented in the Appendix, Table A1.
The species were ranked according to the biogeographical categories proposed by Passos et al. (2012), as follow: CT -Circumtropical (throughout the tropics); TA -Trans-Atlantic (western and eastern sides of the subtropical and tropical Atlantic Ocean); WA -Western Atlantic (western side of the subtropical and tropical North and South Atlantic Ocean, with the northern subtropical limit at South Carolina, USA); SWA -Southern West Atlantic (northern Brazil to Argentina); SSWA -Southern South West Atlantic (southeastern Brazil to Argentina); Ca -Caribbean (Florida, USA, to Venezuela); Br -Brazilian Province (between the Orinoco delta, Venezuela, and Santa Catarina, Brazil); EA -Eastern Atlantic (eastern side of the subtropical and tropical North and South Atlantic Ocean); and EP -Eastern Pacific (eastern side of the subtropical and tropical Pacific Ocean).Several species have a geographic distribution that does not fit exactly with the biogeographical categories proposed.For such cases, we combined two or three biogeographical categories in order to comply with their distribution.
The conservation status of species was verified in the 'IUCN Red List of Threatened Species' (IUCN 2014), the Brazilian federal list for threatened species, Ordinance of the Ministry of Environment nº 445, December 17 of 2014 (Brasil 2014), and the São Paulo state list for threatened species, Decree Nº 60.133 of February 7 of 2014 (Governo do Estado de São Paulo 2014).

DIsCUssION
The fish fauna of Araçá Bay is composed of the same pool of species found in other areas along the southeastern Brazilian coast, such as Sepetiba Bay, Rio de

Continued
Caribbean and Brazilian Province (a combination of the Ca and Br categories).A total of 3.2% species is restricted to the Brazilian Province, and 2.4% are distributed along the southern part of the Western Atlantic (Figure 2).The conservation status of fish species from Araçá Bay is shown in the Table 1, and the relative frequency of each category is shown in the Figure 3.Only 29% of the species are ranked within one of the IUCN Red List categories: four species are Data Deficient (DD), 26 Janeiro (Araújo et al. 2002), and Flamengo Cove, Ubatuba (Mattox et al. 2014).In Araçá Bay, as in those areas, the richest families in terms of species were Sciaenidae, Haemulidae, Paralichthydae, and Carangidae.In fact, such families, especially Carangidae and Sciaenidae, are commonly found throughout the Brazilian coast (Vazzoler et al. 1999).Although potential differences in fish species composition may be due to differences in the sampling processes and protocols, a comparison of the Araçá Bay species composition to other southeastern Brazilian coastal ecosystems might be informative.The richness of Araçá Bay (126 spp.) is greater than on the Ubatuba shelf, where a total of 79 and 111 species were reported by Rocha andRossi-Wongtschowski (1998), andCosta (2014), respectively.A lesser richness than in Araçá Bay was also found in adjacent regions of the SSC by Rossi-Wongtschowski et al. (2008), and Gibran and Moura (2012), who found 65 and 68 species, respectively.The high species richness encountered in the present study may be due to the varied (nine) gear types used, while the other studies used only one.These comparisons emphasize the importance of combining different sampling methods to attain a more complete picture of the species composition in fish assemblages (Olin and Malinen 2003).It is worth pointing out that Araçá Bay shares approximately half of its fish fauna with the SSC (43%, Lamas 2015), which suggests a considerable connectivity of species.
For this reason, these species have not been included in the present checklist.
Most of the fish fauna of Araçá Bay is either widely distributed throughout the subtropical and tropical Western Atlantic, or more restricted to the tropical region (i.e., occurring in both Caribbean and Brazilian Province), and there are also species more related to the temperate region (i.e., southern South West Atlantic).The geographic distribution pattern of Araçá fishes reflects the bay's location in the Argentinian zoogeographic province, which extends from Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro, to the Valdés Peninsula, Argentina (Caires 2014).The Argentinian zoogeographic province is a large faunistic transition zone, where tropical and  With the expansion of the São Sebastião Port, habitat will be lost within the bay and a substantial increase in pollution from oil spills and sewage may be expected.These are threats to fish populations within the bay.We found legally endangered species, such as Epinephelus marginatus and Gymnura altavela, in Araçá Bay, which means that measures should be taken to protect their populations during and after the port expansion, as determined by federal legislation (Brasil 2014).Our results also found species in need of fishery management, such as Hippocampus reidi, Lutjanus analis, Lutjanus cyanopterus, Micropogonias furnieri, Mugil liza, Rhinobatos percellens and Sardinella brasiliensis, which emphasizes the inclusion of the bay in the regional fisheries planning.
Also important is the presence of two non-native species, O. punctatus and B. koilomatodon.These species were likely introduced into the bay with ballast water and as part of the biofouling communities on cargo ships that dock in the São Sebastião Port.With the port expansion, a substantial increase in ship traffic is expected, which increases the probability of new introductions.Non-native species pose a threat to native species by out-competing for habitat and resources (Contente et al. 2015;Contente et al. 2016).
Our study also determined that the conservation status of many species found in Araçá Bay, and elsewhere along the Brazilian coast, remains unevaluated.This may be a consequence of the paucity of biological and ecological data on these species, which are needed for ranking status.We found that species often received a different ranking in the state and federal lists, and that the state list classifies many more species as threatened than the federal one.This highlights the disparity of methods and criteria used (Gärdenfors 2001;Possingham et al. 2002).
This study provides the first checklist of the fish species of the Araçá Bay, with remarks on their distribution and conservation, which can be an important tool for future environmental impact, biogeographical and macroecological studies.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Relative frequency of the conservation status of species recorded in Araçá Bay (total richness = 126) in the IUCN Red List (IUCN 2014), in the federal list (BR; Brasil 2014), and in the state list (SP; Governo do Estado de São Paulo 2014).IUCN: NE -Not Evaluated; LC -Least Concern; DD -Data Deficient; VU -Vulnerable; NT -Near Threatened; EN -Endangered.BR: NE -Not Evaluated; VU -Vulnerable; CR -Critically Endangered.SP: NE -Not Evaluated; DD -Data Deficient; NT -Near Threatened; NFMP -Needed Fisheries Management Plan.For the IUCN classification criteria see 'The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species' (IUCN 2014), for the federal classification criteria see the Ordinance of the Ministry of Environment nº 445, of 17 December 2014 (Brasil 2014) and for the state classification criteria see the Decree Nº 60.133 of 7 February 2014 (Governo do Estado de São Paulo 2014).

Table 1 .
Fish species recorded in Araçá Bay, São Sebastião Channel, northern coast of São Paulo, Brazil.Geographic distribution categories (GD); conservation status of the species: the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2014), the Ordinance of the Ministry of Environment nº 445, of 17 December 2014 (BR) (Brasil 2014) and the Decree Nº 60.133 of 7 February 2014 (SP) (Governo do Estado de São Paulo 2014).No geographic distribution category was attributedfor Omobranchus punctatus, and Butis koilomatodon since they are originally from the Indo-Pacific.Abbreviations of geographic distribution and conservation status are in figure 2 and 3, respectively.*Species for which vouchers are not available, due to problems in the preservation of the exemplars.Species Local

Table a1 .
Lamas et al. | Ichthyofauna from Araçá Bay, São Sebastião Channel Voucher number of specimens deposited in the Zoological Museum of the University of São Paulo.Species are in alphabetic order.