Volume 69
Fine-scale Dispersal of Eggs from a Nassau Grouper (Epinephelus striatus) Spawning Aggregation
Authors
Stock, B.C., A. Mullen, P. Roberts, J.S. Jaffe, L, Waterhouse, C. Pattengill-Semmens, C, McCoy, and B. X. Semmens Download PDF Open PDF in BrowserOther Information
Date: November, 2016
Pages: 322 - 323
Event: Proceedings of the Sixty eigth Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
City: Grand Cayman
Country: Cayman Islands
Abstract
Nassau Grouper (Epinephelus striatus) are large, predatory reef fish that are ecologically, economically, and culturally valuable members of Caribbean reef communities (Sadovy and Eklund 1999). Their populations have been severely depleted throughout the Caribbean, primarily due to overfishing at fish spawning aggregations (FSAs, Sadovy et al. 2008). Since 2003, the Cayman Islands Department of the Environment (DOE) and Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) have spent considerable scientific, financial, and political resources to protect the spawning aggregation of Nassau Grouper off the west end of Little Caymanthe largest known aggregation of the species. The number of spawning adults has increased under protection from fishing, but the contribution of the aggregation to recruitment (young adults entering the population) is unknown.