Abstract

Assessing the conservation status of poorly managed species can be a challenge due to lack of information which tends to become even less as population numbers decline and species become of conservation concern. Therefore, in assessing population status and trends over time, proxies may have to be used, as, for example, when doing IUCN Red List assessments. A method is presented using the changing status of spawning aggregations of the Nassau grouper, Epinephelus striatus, as a proxy for population status changes over time and to assist in updating the conservation status of this threatened species.

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