Coastal waters of a marine protected area of the Bijagós Archipelago, West Africa, shelter juvenile fishes of economic and ecological importance

In many marine ecosystems small pelagic fish exert a crucial role in controlling the dynamics of community, mainly due to their high biomass at intermediate levels food web. These use coastal as nursery areas, but also forage and avoid predation or competition. We studied spatial, seasonal, lunar diel variations community from protected area Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau. Fish were sampled with 46 beach seine net sessions 2015 2016. A total 35 species 25 families captured. abundance varied between years seasons, higher dry season, not by tide. Nonetheless, composition was broadly similar over among islands tides. Clupeidae, Haemulidae Gerreidae most abundant families. Sardinella maderensis highly dominated captures throughout year, catches much than any other species. The differences seasons may be related movements shore feeding activity predation, else recruitment years. There no significant richness diversity, although numbers captured during daytime. For majority individuals immature, highlighting importance archipelago for several pelagics, particularly maderensis, represent main prey predators. Thus, conservation such key management Archipelago.