Mass spawning aggregation of the giant bumphead parrotfish Bolbometopon muricatum

Abstract

The present study reports a previously undocumented mass spawning aggregation and group spawning phenomena of c. 1200 individual bumphead parrotfish Bolbometopon muricatum in Palau, Micronesia. Although B. muricatum are protected in Palau, it is further recommended that management strategies should consider establishment of no-take zones at B. muricatum spawning aggregations and concomitant sleeping grounds elsewhere.

Age structure of spawners of the axillary seabream, Pagellus acarne (Risso, 1827), in the central Mediterranean Sea (Strait of Sicily)

“…Although there is growing interest in studies focused on the spawning aggregation of fish (e.g. Boucek et al, 2017;Roff et al, 2017;Stump et al, 2017) worldwide, in the Mediterranean Sea the ongoing knowledge is scarce (Aronov and Goren, 2008;Ganias, 2008).…”

Trait groups as management entities in a complex, multispecies reef fishery

“…To manage this group with the TBAM framework, actions such as prioritizing local subsistence exploitation over commercial export or placing size restrictions on catches could help maintain biomass and key functions (i.e., herbivory) while enabling some fishing of an important group of species. It may also be practical to have some more targeted management within large trait groups, such as widely employed restrictions on parrotfish (Pinheiro et al., 2021) or on morphologically similar species (to facilitate communication and enforcement of any restrictions) and species‐specific actions, such as bans for Bolbometopon muricatum (Roff et al., 2017). The TBAM approach also offers a way to prioritize.…”

Hidden Giants: The Story of Bolbometopon muricatum at Ningaloo Reef

“…B. muricatum typically settle to branching corals in sheltered lagoons adjacent to mangroves [32], before moving to high energy forereef foraging habitat as adults [12]. Adults are also known to seek shelter in deep interreef passages at night [33,34]. Reef crest zones at northern Mangrove Bay are currently characterised by moderate live coral cover (mean ± SE = 19% ± 5.8%: [27]) and close proximity to the only mangroves stands at northern Ningaloo.…”

“…Alternatively, it may reflect the poleward expansion of this species along the western Australian coast as has been documented for other tropical reef fish species [35]. B. muricatum are highly gregarious, feeding and sleeping in groups of up to 100 individuals [36] with spawning aggregations of up to 1200 individuals [34]. Schools can move up to 6 km per day [32] but they are often sparsely distributed, making them difficult to detect using certain survey techniques [37].…”