Abstract

In the Western Atlantic region, encompassing the US South Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and wider Caribbean, the snapper-grouper complex serve as important targets in multi-species fisheries, many of which have experienced significant declines. These fishes share similar life history characteristics including long lives, late reproductive maturity, and spawning in aggregations. Governance capacity is limited and uneven throughout this large and diverse region and resources are limited for fisheries independent sampling. As a result, these fisheries are considered “data-poor” and management decisions are often made with little information. How can this be addressed? We pose that fisheries managers should invest fisheries dependent data collection efforts at the time and location of spawning aggregations. If it is assumed that some portion of the stock aggregates to spawn each year, accurate counts at multiple sites can offer direct measures of the overall population size. Similarly, age, length, and sex frequency data, and size-specific fecundity can be gathered efficiently at spawning aggregation sites. Recent findings indicate that many spawning sites share common geomorphological characteristics, (e.g. reef promontories on shelf edges) and that many sites serve multiple members of the snapper-grouper complex. Relevant information for better stock assessments for many data poor stocks might be efficiently gathered by monitoring multi-species spawning sites through grouper and snapper spawning seasons. We urge that managers consider a paradigm shift for monitoring, data collection, and rebuilding - let them come to you.

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