Newsletter

The SCRFA Board of Directors has recently changed. I would like to thank Janet Gibson (Belize), Pat Colin (Palau) and Terry Donaldson (Guam) for their great work and support in helping to make SCRFA the organisation it now is. They have retired from the Board, making way for three new Board members, launching SCRFA into a new and exciting phase of development, work and influence. The next Board meeting will be in October this year.

Once again I am in Fiji working on a project we have been doing with the Fiji Fishery Research Office on a spawning aggregation located in a small marine protected area (MPA) off the island of Kadavu, south of Fiji’s capital, Suva. I have just learned that several of the fish we tagged in the Naiqoro Channel in July/August 2009 have been recaptured, and was fortunate to meet the fisher who caught them (see photo). Fiji is one of our focal study areas and we have been working here since the early 2000s, conducting fisher interviews and field work. At Naiqoro passage we are doing a baseline survey of the grouper aggregation site, one of the best known in Fiji.

South Atlantic Fishery Management Council Approves Measures to Address Overfishing Snapper-Grouper Species (see also Newsletter 13)

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) is responsible for the conservation and management of fish stocks within its jurisdiction through the development of fishery plans, with requirements to prevent and stop overfishing, minimize bycatch, and protect habitat. In our last Newsletter (No. 13) we suggested that spatial measures could also be applied. In feedback to that article, we were advised that there is already some spatial protection involved, and that efforts are now being made to incorporate more spatial measures in management planning in the snapper-grouper fishery of the region.

Protecting Mutton Spawning Aggregations in the Dry Tortugas

In June 2009, the National Oceanic and The muton snapper, Lutjanus analis, migrates to specifics sites to form annual transient spawning aggregations in the tropical western Atlantic (Domeier et al. 1996; Lindeman et al. 2000; Heyman and Kjerfve 2008). Regrettably, previous fishery management strategies have not always considered the susceptible nature of reef fish spawning aggregations (FSAs), allowing them to be rapidly depleted by unregulated fishing activities (Aguilar-Perera 2006). In 2001 the Tortugas South Ecological Reserve (TSER) was established to alleviate pressure on a historical mutton spawning aggregation site. This area is considered a critical source of recruits to southeast Florida and the Florida Keys (Domeier 2004). Re-formation of the mutton spawning aggregation has been documented since the closure of the TSER (Burton et al. 2005) but little is known about adult fish movements within the Dry Tortugas region.

Study on Coral Reef Fish Spawning Closures
Help Formulate Adaptive Management in Australia

A review of annual coral reef fish fishery spawning closures in Queensland, Australia was conducted by the Fishing and Fisheries Research Centre of James Cook University in 2008, four years after implementation,to determine the effectiveness of the closures. Designed to protect reef fish from fishing during spawning throughoutthe entire Great Barrier Reef (GBR), the spawning closurescovered the three new moon periods from October to December, for 9 days each from 2004 to 2008, inclusive. The closures were planned around the reproductive timingo f coral trout, Plectropomus leopardus, the dominant reef fish species in the GBR commercial catch, but with consideration for other exploited reef fish species.

Spawning by Camouflage Grouper, Epinephelus polyphekadion, Observed and Documented in Palaufor First Time in Wild

 Observations of spawning in groupers are relatively rare, and the camouflage grouper is no exception. Its aggregations have been variously documented and monitored since the mid-1990's in Palau. However, observations of actual spawning had not been made there, despite many attempts to observe their spawning at dusk by different observers.

 A recent dedicated effort by Jim Forrest and Jeanette Denby of the yacht "Dancer", based in Palau, offers for the first time solid information regarding the actual time of spawning by the camouflage grouper in the country. In addition to making general observations, Forrest was also able to film grouper behaviour, courtship and spawning for a new documentary being prepared by SCRFA on coastal fisheries and spawning aggregations
in Palau.

Many larger, exploited, reef fishes conduct part or all of their reproduction in aggregations. However, it is not always clear whether their management should involve controls on fishing of aggregating fish instead of, or in addition to, more conventional management controls. Examples of conventional approaches include annual catch quotas, size and bag limits, etc. Assuming (a) that management is needed, and (b) that aggregations are targeted, what factors need to be considered when devising suitable management and monitoring plans for aggregating species?

The appropriate management of fish species that aggregate to spawn will depend on a number of factors. From a biological perspective, an important question that needs to be asked is whether fishing activity on, or other human disruptions of, a spawning aggregation, could have a negative impact on reproductive behaviour or egg output, and, therefore, whether aggregations themselves need to be protected. There are a number of reasons for asking whether aggregations need protection in addition to, or perhaps instead of, other forms of management. In this newsletter, I only address some biological perspectives: practical, social and other considerations will be examined later. Note that this column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of us at SCRFA; rather it is intended to stimulate discussion, provoke thought, and, hopefully, encourage feedback.