Biology and fishery of Acoupa Weakfish Cynoscion acoupa (Lacepède, 1801): a review Cicero Diogo Oliveira 1,2 , Rosangela Lessa 2 , Zafra Almeida 3 , Francisco Marcante Santana 1,2 1 Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE), Dom Manuel de Medeiros Street, Recife – Pernambuco, Brazil 2 Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE), Unidade Acadêmica de Serra Talhada (UAST), avenida Saco, Serra Talhada – Pernambuco, Brazil 3 Universidade Estadual do Maranhão (UEMA), avenida Lourenço Vieira da Silva, São Luís – Maranhão, Brazil Corresponding author: Cicero Diogo Oliveira (linsdiogoc@gmail.com) Academic editor: Pablo Lehmann  |  Received 17 June 2020  |  Accepted 23 July 2020  |  Published 14 August 2020 Citation: Oliveira CD, Lessa R, Almeida Z, Santana FM (2020) Biology and fshery of Acoupa Weakfsh Cynoscion acoupa (Lacepède, 1801): a review. Neotropical Biology and Conservation 15(3): 333–349. https://doi.org/10.3897/ neotropical.15.e55563 Abstract Te present study describes the fshery and biology of Acoupa Weakfsh Cynoscion acoupa, an impor- tant fshery resource in South America. We found and analyzed 31 articles and 10 publications about the species. Cynoscion acoupa is an estuarine marine species, which has a feeding habit with preference for fsh and crustaceans. Its spawning occurs during two periods of the year and the size at maturity of females is 40 to 50 cm, while males mature earlier, with 38–40 cm. Teir growth is considered slow to moderate, with growth coefcient k ranging from 0.13 to 0.28, and the species can reach up to 15 years of age. C. acoupa is target of commercial and recreational fsheries in estuarine and marine coastal environ- ments, mainly in the northern region of South America. Te fsheries occur throughout the year, with diferent fshing gear, being more frequent with gillnets. In addition, fshing is more frequent on juveniles, which may compromise the stock. Tis species is categorized as of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, although it has a high degree of vulnerability to fshing, which, com- bined with overexploitation, shows that C. acoupa should be listed as under threat of extinction to some degree. Te lack of studies on the species makes it difcult to establish management measures. Terefore, further studies should be prioritized, especially on reproductive biology, growth and fshing exploitation. Keywords age and growth, artisanal fsheries, conservation, reproductive biology, Sciaenidae, South America Neotropical Biology and Conservation 15(3): 333–349 (2020) doi: 10.3897/neotropical.15.e55563 Copyright Cicero Diogo Oliveira et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. REVIEW ARTICLE