Abstract

Reef-dwelling snappers support valuable commercial and recreational fisheries. Snappers have been reported to use seagrass habitat as a primary nursery area in south Florida waters, although it is still largely unknown where newly recruited and early-juvenile stages of snappers are settling in the waters of the Florida Keys. Previous studies largely have been unsuccessful in locating and collecting these young-of-the-year fishes in seagrass beds. In order to determine the feasibility of collecting early-life stages of snappers in shallow (< 1.3m depth), nearshore seagrass beds and to describe snapper abundance and distribution, we conducted a six-month (June through November 2003), stratified-random-design pilot study using 21 m seines on the Atlantic side of the Middle Keys. We collected relatively high numbers of snappers (n = 363), of which more than half were settlement-stage individuals, including 69 new recruits (< 20 mm SL) and 131 early-stage juveniles (> 20 and < 40 mm SL). Mean standard length overall was 36 mm. The most abundant snapper collected was Lutjanus griseus. Snappers recruited consis-tently during the sampling period, and abundance did not significantly differ between months. Recruitment peaked during September, October, and November, suggesting that higher numbers of adult snappers were spawning in late summer and early fall. Snapper abundance differed significantly between sampling sites, most likely due to habitat differences. Abundance was positively and significantly correlated with Halodule wrightii cover and negatively correlated with Thalassia testudinum cover. Preliminary results indicate that shallow, mixed-species seagrass beds along Atlantic beachfronts in the Middle Keys may constitute an especially important settlement habitat for snappers, particularly L. griseus.

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