Ron Hill

2015

2016

2017

Key elements of Puerto Rico’s priority goals include: Protect coral reef ecosystems from large- and small-scale fisheries impacts and Enhance management programs to reduce fishing impacts to coral reef ecosystems. CRCP’s Fishing Impacts Goal 2, Objective 2.1 lists identifying, characterizing and ranking priority areas for protection, including spawning sites, as a high priority for FY-16. Meeting these objectives depends on robust knowledge of reef fish populations. These actions are especially critical in MPA design and the evaluation of spatial measures supporting fisheries management. Many commercial fishery stocks on the insular shelves of the US Caribbean, including large predators such as grouper, that contribute ecological resistance and resilience to healthy coral reef ecosystems, are depleted or near depletion. Annual aggregative spawning behaviors have made them easy to overfish. Managers know far less about these sites and their status than fishers, who have exploited these aggregations for decades, even to the point of extirpation. To enhance management, we need better data on site locations and dynamics: where and when aggregations occur, which species use each location, how abundant are spawners during the aggregation, and can abundance at aggregations be used as an indicator of population abundance at resident reefs? For effective conservation, spatial boundaries and seasonal fishing regulations must match the timing and locations of aggregations to achieve recovery of these critical reef resources. Prior attempts to locate and monitor aggregations were highly dependent on inquiries to fishermen followed by diver or other visual surveys. These surveys have limited spatial coverage and depend on good weather and adequate light. The current proposal is the third year of a 3-yr project to expand the successful use of acoustic surveys in combination with diver groundtruthing to assess and monitor baseline characteristics at reported aggregation sites in NE Reserves, PR. In cooperation with partners, CCRI, University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (UPRM), SERO, and USF/Loggerhead instruments, we will transfer techniques proven on red hind, Nassau, and yellowfin grouper aggregations at Mona, Bajo de Sico, and Abrir la Sierra (Cabo Rojo) to NE Reserve sites. Sites will be surveyed for active aggregations and acoustics will be used to locate and define temporal and spatial boundaries. Passive acoustic receivers record sounds emitted during spawning, and PIs identify species-specific ‘calls’ of fish at aggregation sites allowing continuous automated monitoring. Calls of several grouper species have been differentiated and the ‘vocalizations’ can indicate numbers of individuals and spawning behavior. Companion projects with collaborators (SEFSC, Reefscapes and UPRM) have been funded by S-K, S & T’s HFA Science, and CFMC, providing leverage to augment and enhance results.

Grouper spawning aggregations are highly vulnerable to overfishing, and management regimes vary (permanent and temporal spatial closures, seasonal closures, no management). With the variety of sites suspected (the vast majority still unverified) and problems associated with accessing even known sites, it is difficult to monitor the status of spawning populations and assess effectiveness of management interventions. Presently, there are no practical means of monitoring even a few sites comprehensively in the US Caribbean. Based on initial results we expect long-term results to include: A) determination of seasonal spawning dynamics so that (1) closed seasons maximize protection and(2) in situ sampling can be optimized and/or calibrated; B) the ability to monitor aggregations independent of location and weather; C) record changes in abundance over time that account for within season variability; D) ability to monitor boat/fishing traffic (fishing activity or intensity) at aggregation sites by sound; E) the ability to determine size structure and density of spawners remotely; F) the ability to locate new aggregation sites for a variety of soniferous species; and, G) the ability to do all of the above in real time. The present work is focused on A-C& F, but will lay the groundwork for the other outcomes. Lastly, both Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, through the cooperative SEAMAP-Caribbean program, have judged the passive acoustic approach to have sufficient merit that they have invested in several DSG recorders to monitoring several sites in the coming years. Cooperation with the ongoing research will be critical for training of fishery staff in both Puerto Rico and the USVI to deploy and analyze the resulting data.

• Puerto Rico

• Cabo Rojo
• North East Reserves

Fishing

Closed

Completed

https://www.coris.noaa.gov/search/rest/find/document?searchText=projectNumber%3A878%20OR%20projectTitle%3A"Defining%20spawning%20dynamics%20to%20manage%20and%20conserve%20reef%20fish%20populations"&start=1&max=10&f=searchPage