Volume 69

Characterizing the Spatio-temporal Distributions of a Red Hind, Epinephelus guttatus, Fish Spawning Aggregation in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands:Using Acoustic Telemetry for Conservation and Management


Authors
Brown, J.E. and R.S. Nemeth
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Date: November, 2016


Pages: 324 - 326


Event: Proceedings of the Sixty eigth Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute


City: Grand Cayman


Country: Cayman Islands

Abstract

Over 200 species of coral reef fishes form fish spawning aggregations (FSA) (Russell et al. 2014) at specific locations and times (Domeier 2012). Red Hind, Epinephelus guttatus, form seasonal (Munro et al. 1973, Burnett-Herkes 1975, Shapiro et al. 1993), transient FSAs (Colin et al. 1987), whereby they exhibit high site fidelity with limited migration of 5 - 20 km between their home range and spawning ground (Sadovy et al. 1994, Luckhurst 1998, Nemeth et al. 2007). As a major commercial fishery species in the Caribbean (CFMC 1985; 50 FR 34850) fishing has attributed to its vulnerable status by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Red List Unit, and risk of extinction if uncontrolled fishing continues (Sadovy de Mitcheson et al. 2012). As a protogynous hermaphrodite (female to male) at about 280-320 mm TL (Sadovy et al. 1992; Shapiro et al. 1993), fishing on FSAs also greatly contributes to its decline causing skewed sex ratios (Whaylen et al. 2004), sperm limitation (Bannerot et al. 1987), hyperstability, and FSA disappearance (Olsen and LaPlace 1978). Additional threats to Red Hind include coastal development which negatively impacts nursery habitats of seagrass meadows and mangrove forests by their removal, increases in non-point source pollution and sedimentation, and climate change, as sea surface temperatures continue to increase, current direction and speed is likely to change, thereby affecting larval disbursement and local recruitment.

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