Vertical distributions of late stage larval fishes in the nearshore watersof the San Bias Archipelago, Caribbean Panama

Light traps were used to describe the vertical distribution of late larval stages of reef fishes in the San Blas Archipelago during three successive n ew moon periods. Traps were deployed in the lagoon and at an exposed site o n the outer reef edge. At each site, two traps were anchored at the surface and two traps just above the bottom. Most families of reef fishes that wer e abundant in catches displayed clear patterns of depth preference. The lar vae of gerrids, pomacentrids and lutjanids were predominantly captured in s hallow traps. while gobiids, labrids, apogonids and blenniids were usually collected in deep traps. Studies that used lights to aggregate and collect larval fishes display marked differences in the composition of catches betw een the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and the Caribbean. In order to determine w hether such results were due to biases inherent in different sampling metho ds, or to locality-specific patterns of larval behaviour, we simultaneously deployed light traps and dip-netting around lights during three new moons in the San Blas Archipelago. We found that these sampling techniques collec ted differing components of the larval fish assemblage from the same water mass. However, there remains good evidence for the existence of locality-sp ecific responses to light in older larval stages, suggesting that broad gen eralisations about patterns and causes of vertical distributions may be dif ficult to achieve.