DISTRIBUTION AND RELATIVE ABUNDANCE OF GE RREIDAE (OSTEICHTHYES, PERCIFORMES) IN THE SEPETIBA BAY, RJ

Fish Gerreidae are very abundant in tropical and sub-tropical coastal lagoons and play an important role either as economic resources by par ticipating in artisanal fisheries and as ecological parr by linking pr imary and tertiary trophic level in the ecosystem food web. This group of fishes ranked among the top abundant fish in both number and bioma ss in the,fish community at Sepeitiba Bay, a 305km(2) coastal lagoon w ith a wider communication with the sea at Rio de Janeiro State (22 deg rees 54' and 23 degrees 04' S;43 degrees 34' and 44 degrees 10'W). A f ish sampling programme of otter trawl, between July-1993 and June-1995 , and beach seine, between July-1993 and June-1994, was carried at fix ed sampling sixes, aiming to defect seasonal and spatial trends in rel ative abundance and distribution' of Gerreidae. Monthly sampling were performed in one annual cycle (Jun-1993 to July-1994) for both otter t rawl and beach seine. while bi-monthly sampling were done for a second annual cycle (August-1994 to June-1995) only for otter trawl. Environ mental parameters of temperature, salinity, transparency and depth wer e taken at each fish sampling.