Volume 69
Using In-situ Length Data to Test a Data-poor Stock Assessment Model and Stock Status of Protected Aggregating Fish Species Epinephelus striatus
Authors
Cohn, B., B. Stock, L. Waterhouse, S. Heppel, C. Patemgill-Semmens, P. Bush, and B. Semmens Download PDF Open PDF in BrowserOther Information
Date: November, 2016
Pages: 375 - 376
Event: Proceedings of the Sixty eigth Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
City: Grand Cayman
Country: Cayman Islands
Abstract
The Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) is an aggregating Caribbean fish species that has been listed as endangered by the IUCN primarily due to overfishing. In 2001, a historical spawning site off the west end of Little Cayman Island was re-discovered by fishermen and quickly over harvested, prompting the Cayman Islands government to protect spawning sites from fishing. Length measurements were taken in-situ by SCUBA for years 2004 through 2016 using a parallel laser-video calipers. Here we report length-frequency trends through time and use them to fit a recent data-poor stock assessment model, the length-based spawning potential ratio (LB-SPR). We compare the resulting SPR estimates to an independent index of abundance from a mark-recapture model, and make recommendations for extending the LB-SPR method.