11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University

22-25
Estimating Harvest Pressure On Bahamian Coral Reefs Through Seafood
Consumption
Liana TALAUE-MCMANUS* 1 , Joy HAZELL 2
1 Marine Affairs and Policy, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine &
Atmospheric Science, Miami, FL, 2 Florida Sea Grant Lee County Extension, University
of Florida, Fort Myers, FL
We designed a seafood consumption survey to compare harvest pressure estimates
derived from coral reef fisheries monitoring in the Bahamas. Specifically, we estimated
the fishing pressure on four major marine food resources via consumption estimates and a
review of trade statistics. In addition, we disaggregated domestic consumption into urban
and rural resident and tourist populations. Our sample included 221 urban respondents,
351 rural residents, and 351 tourists.
For the period of study from 2003 to 2004, we estimated annual consumption for four
species: conch (Strombus gigas) consumption reached 4200 mt; grouper complex, 7910
mt; spiny lobster (Panulirus argus), 4580 mt; and snapper complex at 3200 mt. Tourists
consumed 17% of conch available in the Bahamas; 14% of grouper; 12% of lobster, and
only 4% of snapper. Mean weekly consumption by tourists was almost twice that of
resident populations for conch and grouper, although the standard deviations were
sufficiently wide to make the differences statistically insignificant. Of the four major
seafood items, the spiny lobster posted the greatest trade pressure with about 69% of total
catch exported to foreign markets and 31%, domestically consumed. The fisheries
monitoring system in the Bahamas did not document 86% of estimated total conch catch
based on consumption and trade statistics. The same holds true for 94% of grouper catch,
39% for lobster and 77% for snapper. In the absence of a proper fisheries monitoring
program, a food consumption survey for residents may be implemented annually. For
tourists, exit surveys can include queries on food consumption.
For species-specific seafood, consumption estimates provide a realistic complement to
traditional fisheries monitoring. For multi-species seafood like groupers and snappers, a
population-level monitoring using fisheries-based methods remains critical for
management.
22-26
Flawed Data, Reef Fisheries, And Food Security: A Close Inspection Of Marine
Fisheries Catches in Mozambique, Tanzania, Fiji, And The Solomon Islands
Jennifer JACQUET* 1 , Dirk ZELLER 1
1 Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Good management decisions often require good data. We present a simple taxonomy for
fisheries catch data that can be used as a “smell-test” when considering data quality and
level of reporting. When it comes to reporting, underreporting of fisheries catches is the
likeliest outcome, which inevitably leads to misallocations of fisheries resources. We
demonstrate underreporting of fisheries catches has occurred in four countries where
local people rely heavily on coral reef fisheries for food security: Mozambique, Tanzania,
Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. We present the results of catch reconstructions for these
countries for the time span of FAO reporting (1950 to the present) and, in some cases,
new estimates of per capita fish consumption. Reconstructed marine fisheries catches for
Mozambique, for instance, are 6.2 times greater than those reported by FAO based on
country reports and countrywide per capita fish consumption is estimated to be 9 kg per
capita, three times what had been previously calculated based on reported data. In
Tanzania, reconstructed catches now include the reef fisheries of Zanzibar and the result
is that catches are 1.7 times greater than FAO reports. Finally, we discuss the policy
implications of newly reconstructed reef fisheries catches, make recommendations on
how to improve reporting for each country, and suggest alternatives to FAO datasets.
Oral Mini-Symposium 22: Coral Reef Associated Fisheries
22-27
No-Take Areas, Uncertainty And Coral Reef Fisheries Management
Richard APPELDOORN* 1 , Susan SINGH-RENTON 2 , Mauro GONGORA 3
1 Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico,
2 Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism, Kingstown, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines,
3 Capture Fisheries Unit, Belize Fisheries Department, Belize City, Belize
No-take reserves are advocated as a core strategy for resource management. Within coral reef
fisheries, much debate has centered on the roll of enhancing catch through individual movement
from protected to unprotected areas (spillover). This debate largely ignors other critical roles
reserves may play within a management context, such as maintaining spawning stock and
providing control areas to assess fishing impacts. These roles directly relate to countering the
degree of uncertainty traditionally characterizing data poor coral reef fisheries. This is
illustrated with a recent assessment in Belize of queen conch, a commercially important
gastropod inhabiting sea grass, sand and hardbottom habitats of Caribbean reef ecosystems.
Visual census and landings data show the back reef conch population and fishery consist
overwhelmingly of juveniles. With intense fishing having been maintained for many years, the
alternative hypotheses were either that the fishery was severely recruitment overfished and near
collapse, or that recruitment was sustained by an unknown spawning stock. In Belize, use of
scuba for fishing is banned, effectively creating a no-take area in the deep waters in front of the
Belizean barrier reef. Deep water surveys of density and size-structure found adult conch to be
abundant at all stations, that these lived longer than those found in shallow areas, and that much
of these conch resulted from direct settlement and not migration from shallow areas. Monitoring
in small shallow reserves extending into backreef areas was sufficient to demonstrate sustained
recruitment over years, much higher densities of juveniles and adults, and suggested significant
spillover into fished areas. No-take areas were thus critical for maintaining the Belizean fishery
in the face of intense fishing by maintaining a deep-water spawning population, and
demonstrating the validity of this interpretation to management agencies.
22-28
Determining The Appropriate Size Of Closed Areas For Protecting Spawning
Aggregations Of Large Groupers Using Hydro-Acoustics
Richard S. NEMETH* 1 , Elizabeth KADISON 1 , Jeremiah BLONDEAU 1
1 Center for Marine and Environmental Studies, University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas,
Virgin Islands (U.S.)
Many species of tropical groupers (Serranidae) form annual spawning aggregations at
predictable times and locations. This makes them extremely vulnerable to over-fishing which
has lead to the extirpation of many spawning aggregations world-wide. Because a single
spawning aggregation may represent the entire breeding potential of a local population, each
one must be carefully protected. Seasonal or permanent fishery area closures can provide
effective protection, but unfortunately the placement of closure boundaries is often disputed by
fishermen because boundaries are not based on biologically relevant data. In most cases
relatively little is known about the area occupied or the movement and migration patterns
associated with spawning. The aim of this study was to determine the spatial and temporal
pattern of movement and migration associated with spawning aggregations of Nassau
(Epinephelus striatus) and yellowfin (Mycteroperca venenosa) grouper within the Grammanik
Bank (GB), a small (1.5 km 2 ) seasonal closure on the southern shelf edge of the US Virgin
Islands. Five male and 5 female groupers of each species were acoustically tagged and released
on the aggregation site. An array of 17 acoustic receivers were placed in an overlapping curtain
around the GB closure and east and west along the shelf edge, and could detect fish transmitters
within a 400m radius. Both species commonly moved 1 to 3 km in a few hours and could cover
20 km in a 24 hr period. Movements of tagged groupers at the spawning site carried them across
the GB closure boundaries and exposed them to fishing mortality on a daily basis. Moreover a
consistently used migratory pathway was also detected between the GB and another large
marine protected area (MCD) 3 km west. These results indicate that the GB boundaries should
be increased to at least 10 km 2 and include the area between the GB and MCD.
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