TALLAS MÍNIMAS LEGALES PARA PECES EN LAS PESQUERÍAS COSTERAS CUBANAS/ Fish minimum legal size for fishes on the Cuban costal fisheries

Se presenta un estudio sobre los reportes de tallas de primera maduración sexual y se comparan con las tallas mínimas legales establecidas en las normativas de 1996 y 2009. Hubo varias especies de importancia económica no incluidas en una u otra de las normativas y otras no incluidas en ninguna de las dos. En total se analizaron 141 especies. Se calcularon las relaciones entre la longitud horquilla de los individuos maduros m{s pequeños (Lmin) y la longitud horquilla media a la madurez sexual (Lm) de las especies: Lm = 2.54040 + 1.16679 Lmin y la relación empírica entre el Lm y las longitudes horquilla m{ximas observadas (Lmax) compiladas en FishBase: Lm = 13.7398 + 2.00033 Lmax. Se calculó la longitud horquilla óptima de captura (Lopt) de las especies. Hubo 117 especies con talla mínima legal (TML) establecida y de ellas, la mayor parte (65%) fue menor que el Lm (reportado o calculado). El 27% de los reportes de Lm registrados correspondió a aguas cubanas y el 36.9% a otros sitios del Caribe. De las especies con TML de Cuba o el Caribe, el 78.7% correspondieron a las décadas del 60 al 80. Se recomienda reanudar los estudios biológicopesqueros para actualizar las estimaciones de Lm para aguas cubanas y una nueva normativa sobre tallas mínimas legales en que se incluyan todas las especies consideradas y cuyas regulaciones se proponen en el presente estudio: a 32 especies mantener la vigente y para otras 84 se propone una superior, especialmente basada en su Lopt y su Lm. ABSTRACT A study about the length at first sexual maturation reports and their comparison with the established minimum legal sizes on 1996 and 2009 regulations is presented. Several species were not included in one or the other regulation and others with fishery importance were not included in either of them. A total of 141 species were analyzed. The relationships between the smallest matured fish fork length (Lmin) and the mean length at sexual maturity (Lm) of the species was calculated: Lm = 2.54040 + 1.16679 Lmin and the empirical relationship between Lm and the maximum observed fork length (Lmax) compiled in FishBase was also calculated: Lm = 13.7398 + 2.00033 Lmax. Species optimum fork length at capture (Lopt) was calculated. There were 117 species with an established legal minimum length (LML), the majority of which had their Lm (reported or calculated) smaller than LML. Reports of Lm from Cuban waters represented 27%, and those from other sites on the Caribbean were 36.9%. The dates of the majority of reports of species with LML reports from Cuban or the Caribbean waters were before 1990. It is recommended to restart the fishery biology studies to update Lm estimations and a new LML regulation was proposed to include all species considered on the present study. The present LML for 32 species are considered to be the same established and new regulations are proposed for another 84, based on their Lopt and Lm.