Diel habitat-use patterns of commercially important fishes in a marine protected area in the Philippines

K Honda,M Nakaoka,Ads Pantallano,Wh Uy,Di Baslot,Y Nakamura

doi:10.3354/ab00646

Abstract

The diel habitat-use patterns of commercially important fishes in a small marine protected area (MPA) (0.31 km 2 ) containing coral reef and seagrass habitats were examined by passive acoustic telemetry during 2011 and 2012. The occurrence patterns of the target fishes both inside and outside the MPA were also observed. Thirty individuals from 6 species (20.2 to 41.4 cm fork length) were caught, acoustically tagged and released inside the MPA, and 4 to 210 d of tracking data were then obtained from 28 detected fishes. Lutjanus monostigma, Lethrinus atkin- soni, and Lethrinus obsoletus were found to mostly inhabit the coral reef. The remaining 3 species (Lutjanus argentimaculatus, Lethrinus harak, and Siganus guttatus) utilized both coral and seagrass habitats but showed different patterns: Lutjanus argentimaculatus visited seagrass only at night; Lethrinus harak occurred in the coral reef more at night than in the day, showing the opposite pattern in seagrass; and S. guttatus exhibited the converse pattern to L. harak. More than one-third of the tracked individuals moved inside and outside the MPA more than once per day on average during the tracking period. However, 95.4% of detections were recorded by acoustic receivers deployed inside the MPA. Underwater visual surveys revealed that the densities of some target fishes were significantly higher inside than outside the MPA. These findings suggest that the MPA protects the core of fish home ranges.

Highlights

The conservation of tropical marine resources is becoming increasingly important with the growing human population and the associated decline in food resources (Newton et al 2007, Mora et al 2011)
marine protected area (MPA) provide a number of benefits, such as protecting target stocks and spillover to adjacent areas, their positive effects are sometimes limited (Mora et al 2011, Edgar et al 2014), largely because of illegal fishing inside MPAs (e.g. Tobey & Torell 2006, Christie et al 2009) and inappropriate MPA designs
As populations inside reserves can be influenced by the movements of individuals, information on the spatial scales of adult movement and propagule dispersal is critical for the design of effective MPAs (Mora et al 2006, Grüss et al 2011, Pittman et al 2014)

Summary

Introduction

The conservation of tropical marine resources is becoming increasingly important with the growing human population and the associated decline in food resources (Newton et al 2007, Mora et al 2011). MPAs provide a number of benefits, such as protecting target stocks and spillover to adjacent areas, their positive effects are sometimes limited (Mora et al 2011, Edgar et al 2014), largely because of illegal fishing inside MPAs (e.g. Tobey & Torell 2006, Christie et al 2009) and inappropriate MPA designs. Such designs result from a lack of biological and ecological information on various factors such as dispersal abilities, habitat-use patterns, and the home ranges of target organisms (e.g. Grober-Dunsmore et al 2007, Planes et al 2009, Alós et al 2011). The best size for MPAs can differ widely depending on the target species and location

Objectives

Results

Conclusion