Effects-based assessment in a tropical coastal system: Status of bicolor damselfish (Stegastes partitus) on the north shore of Cuba

The research was carried out to determine whether there are individual-level differences in the bicolor damselfish (Stegastes partitus) within the altered fish communities located on the north coast of Havana, Cuba. There was strong evidence of changes in some morphological and physiological characteristics associated with the impact of land-based pollution in the coastal zone. A combination of impaired recruitment due to habitat degradation with increased food supply due to eutrophication seems to be the best explanation for fishes being heavier and longer at polluted sites. The change in the proportion of color patterns and a very high number of atretic oocytes in the ovaries of fish caught near the mouth of the Almendares River strongly support the idea that not only is the pollution of river waters affecting the marine life in the coastal zone, but also that this pollution has greater effects than the pollution coming from the discharge of Havana Harbor.