Abstract

Snappers have historically been an important economic stock for the U.S. Virgin Islands, annually contributing nearly 4% of total landings by weight prior to seasonal closures set in place to prevent stock collapse. Evidence of depleted mutton snapper (Lutjanus analis) stocks in St. Croix led the Caribbean Fisheries Management Council into developing the Mutton Snapper Seasonal Area Enclosure (MSSAE) in 1993. The MSSAE closes fishing off at a historical fish spawning aggrega-tion (FSA) site, during the March-June mutton snapper spawning season. Between March 2009 and June 2010, 139 mutton snapper were collaboratively harvested with St. Croix fishers within the MSSAE from an anchored fishing vessel at coordinates provided by local fishers. From this sample, 61 otoliths were collected and analyzed to develop age-frequency distributions, an important tool for creating growth curves and examining population structures. This analysis is part of the first effort since the MSSAE was enacted for gauging how successful management programs have been over the past 17 years for rebuilding local mutton snapper stocks. Researchers determined that the sampled population had a mean age of 6.5 ± 1.8 yrs, with a mode of 7 yrs. Additional analyses on length-frequency and weight-frequency distributions, along with examinations of gonadal conditions, provide preliminary evidence that the MSSAE’s historical FSA site remains active, although the size of the spawning population continues to be difficult to assess.

PDF Preview