Características del Robalo, pez óseo que habita el mar peruano

1. Robaloscion wieneri (Sauvage, 1883) (Sciaenidae)
by
Philippe Béarez* (1), Mariano Gutiérrez-Torero (2),
Jesús Gustavo Barreto-Meza (3), Carlos Martín Salazar-Céspedes (4),
Elvis Infante-Lopez (3) & Miguel Angel Romero-Camarena (5)
Cybium 2020, 44(1): 39-40. https://doi.org/10.26028/cybium/2020-441-004
Threatened fish
©SFI
Submitted: 30 Aug. 2019
Accepted: 27 Dec. 2019
Editor: P. Keith
Common names
Robalo (Peru, Chile), Robalo drum (English), Courbine de
Wiener (French).
IUCN status
Data deficient (DD).
Identification
D X-I/21-23; A II/10; P 19; V I/5; C 19; lateral line complete
with 77 scales; mouth terminal (Fig. 1); gas bladder carrot-shaped,
with a pair of horn-like appendages anteriorly; otolith exception-
ally elongate with globose umbo on the outer face (Fig. 2); body
bluish grey to brown with wavy darker stripes on sides; adult length
to 140 cm and maximum weight 35 kg (Landa, 1952; Béarez and
Schwarzhans, 2013). Drawing from Starks (1906), photography in
Béarez and Schwarzhans (2013).
Biology and ecology
Occurs along sandy and pebble beaches (PB, pers. obs.) as well
as in superficial waters around coastal islands (Fiedler et al., 1943;
Landa, 1952). At flood times, the robalos congregate at the mouths
of rivers (Fiedler, 1944: 97; Schweigger, 1964: 261). This species
feeds primarily upon fish (Peruvian anchoveta, Engraulis ringens;
Pacific menhaden, Ethmidium maculatum), but its diet includes
also crustaceans (freshwater shrimp, Cryphiops caementarius; sand
crab, Emerita analoga; burrowing shrimp, Callichirus garthi).
Little is known about robalo’s reproduction, except that adults
probably used to aggregate in estuaries to spawn (Fiedler, 1944),
when river discharge is important (i.e. November to January). The
Peruvian fishermen used to find the robalo listening to the noise like
a drum that this species makes (Fiedler et al., 1943). A large male
(137 cm TL) caught on 6 March 2000 at the mouth of the Camaná
River, Peru (16°37.7S-72°46.1W) was mature and fluent. As for
other sciaenids, spawning is probably paired with production of
pelagic eggs. The size at sexual maturation is unknown.
Depth range is neither well known, but fishermen consider that
the species lives in inshore waters from December to May, and in
deeper waters (25-30 m depth) during the rest of the year (Fiedler
et al., 1943: 283).
(1) UMR 7209 AASPE, CNRS, MNHN, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 55 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France.
[philippe.bearez@mnhn.fr]
(2) Escuela de Ingeniería Pesquera, Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal, Calle Roma 370, Cercado de Lima 15074, Lima, Peru.
[msgtorero@gmail.com] [elvis.infante@cedepesca.net]
(3) Universidad Nacional José Faustino Sánchez Carrión de Huacho, Peru. [gbarretomeza@gmail.com]
(4) Laboratorio costero de Paita, Instituto del Mar del Perú (IMARPE), Av. Los Pescadores s/n Paita baja, Piura, Peru.
[csalazar@imarpe.gob.pe]
(5) Área Funcional de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad. Instituto del Mar del Perú (IMARPE), Esquina Gamarra y General Valle s/n,
Chucuito-Callao, Lima, Peru. [mromero@imarpe.gob.pe]
* Corresponding author
Figure 1. – Small individual (40.9 cm TL) of Robaloscion wieneri from San
Vicente de Cañete (Lima Region, Peru).
DD
Figure 2. – Left otolith of a specimen of Robaloscion wieneri (71 cm TL).
A: Inner view; B: Dorsal view.

2. Threatened fish: Robaloscion wieneri Béarez et al.
40 Cybium 2020, 44(1)
Distribution
Temperate South-Eastern Pacific, from Puerto Eten (06°56’S,
northern Peru) to Arica (18°28’S, northern Chile). The robalo drum
is an endemic species of the northern part of the Humboldt Current
Ecosystem (Béarez and Schwarzhans, 2013).
Abundance
No modern abundance record. Once a common and prized spe-
cies (Fiedler, 1944), the robalo drum is now uncommon wherever it
occurs, and is no more recorded in IMARPE (Instituto del Mar del
Perú) fisheries national statistics. For example, Fiedler et al. (1943)
indicate that landing of robalo during 1940 was 25,995 kg at Callao
(Lima), 37,397 kg at Chimbote (Peru) and up to 65,135 kg at Pac-
asmayo. IMARPE statistics do not report any landing of robalo at
these harbours since 1988 (Flores et al., 1994), and today robalo is
no more considered a commercial species (Guevara-Carrasco and
Bertrand, 2017).
Main threats
These include: (1) intense and selective fishing for drums:
Robalo, as well as corvina, Cilus gilberti (Abbott, 1899), and lorna,
Callaus deliciosa (Tschudi, 1846), are among the most popular
commercial fish in Peru (Schweigger, 1964: 259); (2) decrease in
the flow of coastal rivers (ONERN, 1972), limiting feeding and
reproduction; (3) capture by destructive and non selective fishing,
especially beach seining; (4) capture as by-catch in the Peruvian
anchovy purse seine fishery; (5) no management at local or national
level; (6) continued trade because its high value increases with rar-
ity.
Protection status
None
Conservation measures implemented
None
Conservation recommendations
(1) Implement a moratorium on fishing to limit population
decline. (2) Fund research on R. wieneri ecology and behaviour,
and especially reproductive season and behaviour. (3) Create
marine reserves that incorporate key habitat, such as spawning
areas. (4) Educate fishermen, resource managers, consumers and
the general public on the importance of recognizing and conserving
this species, which closely resembles to Cilus gilberti. (5) Develop
culture program based on technology already applied to other sciae-
nids (e.g. Totoaba or Argyrosomus species). (6) Restore river flows
in estuaries at spawning season. Remarks: The large size attained
by this species suggests that it may be long-lived, and with a low
replacement rate, which makes it particularly vulnerable to fishing
pressure. There is little chance that culturing will remove pressure
on wild-caught individuals in the near future because sciaenids are
difficult to culture.
According to its current rarity, it is clear that R. wieneri is really
threatened and that its IUCN species status should be re-evaluated.
Acknowledgements. – Thanks to Danièle Lavallée, Michèle Julien, Nicolas
Goepfert, Segundo Vasquez for their help in the field, to the Institut français
d’études andines (IFEA) for financial support during the investigations of
the first author, and to Michel Lemoine for the picture of the otolith.
REFERENCES
Béarez P. & Schwarzhans W., 2013. – Robaloscion, a new
genus for Sciaena wieneri Sauvage, 1883 (Teleostei, Sciaeni-
dae) from the southeastern Pacific, with clarification of the tax-
onomic status of Sciaena starksi Evermann & Radcliffe, 1917.
Cybium, 37(4): 273-279. DOI: 10.26028/cybium/2013-374-006
Fiedler R.H., 1944. – The Peruvian fisheries. Geogr. Rev., 34:
96-119.
FIEDLER R.H., JARVIS N.D. & LOBELL M.J., 1943. – La Pesca
y las Industrias pesqueras en el Perú con Recomendaciones
para su Futuro desarrollo. 371 p. Lima: Compañía Administra-
dora del Guano.
Flores M., Vera S., Marcelo R. & Chrinos E., 1994. –
Estadísticas de los desembarques de la pesquería marina perua-
na 1983-1992. Inf. Inst. Mar Perú, 105: 1-202.
Guevara-Carrasco R. & Bertrand A. (eds), 2017. –
Atlas de la Pesca artesanal del mar del Perú. 183 p. Lima:
IMARPE-IRD.
LandaA., 1952. – Status of two Peruvian sciaenid fishes, Sciaena
starksi and Sciaena wieneri. Copeia, (1): 38. DOI:
10.2307/1437622
ONERN, 1972. – Inventario, evaluación y uso racional de los recur-
sos naturales de la costa : cuencas de los ríos Santa, Lacramarca
y Nepeña. Vol. 1, 491 p. Lima: Oficina Nacional de Evaluación
de Recursos Naturales.
SCHWEIGGER E., 1964. – El Litoral peruano. 414 p. Universidad
Nacional “Federico Villarreal”, Lima.
Starks E.C., 1906. - On a collection of fishes made by P. O.
Simons in Ecuador and Peru. Proc. U. S. Natl. Mus., 30(1468):
761-800. DOI: 10.5479/si.00963801.30-1468.761