Bathymetric distribution of brachyuran crab (Crustacea, Decapoda) communities on coastal soft bottoms off southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Data collection. Crabs were collected monthly from January through December 2000 from a shrimp boat equipped with 2 otter-trawl nets (double-rig) with the following net specifications: length 11 m, mouth 4.5 m, body mesh diameter 25 mm, cod-end mesh diameter 15 mm. Each of 9 transects (2 km each) was trawled for a 30 min period, sampling a total area of about 18 000 m 2 . Four transects, which included the bays of Ubatumirim, Ubatuba and Mar Virado, were sampled once during each season of the year at the 2, 5, 10, and