Integrative taxonomy of the ornamental 'peppermint' shrimp public market and population genetics of Lysmata boggessi, the most heavily traded species worldwide.

J Antonio Baeza,Donald C Behringer

doi:10.7717/peerj.3786

Abstract

The ornamental trade is a worldwide industry worth >15 billion USD with a problem of rampant product misidentification. Minimizing misidentification is critical in the face of overexploitation of species in the trade. We surveyed the peppermint shrimp ornamental marketplace in the southeastern USA, the most intense market for peppermint shrimps worldwide, to characterize the composition of species in the trade, reveal the extent of misidentification, and describe the population genetics of the true target species. Shrimps were bought from aquarium shops in FL, GA, SC, and NC. We demonstrated, contrary to popular belief (information from dealers), that the most heavily traded species in the market was Lysmata boggessi, an endemic species to the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and not Lysmata wurdemanni. Importantly, only when color pattern or genetic markers in conjunction with morphological traits were employed, was it was possible to unequivocally identify L. boggessi as the only species in the trade. The intensity of the market for peppermint shrimps in the USA has led to L. boggessi being the most traded species worldwide. Misidentification in the shrimp aquarium trade is accidental and involuntary, and is explained by remarkable similarity among congeneric species. Using sequences of the 16S-mt-DNA marker, we found no indication of population genetic structure in the endemic L. boggessi across 550 km of linear coast. Therefore, this species can be considered genetically homogeneous and a single fished stock. Still, we argue in favor of additional studies using more powerful markers (e.g., SNPs) capable of revealing genetic structure at a finer spatial-scale. Our results will help advance management and conservation policies in this lucrative yet understudied fishery. Future studies of other ornamental fisheries will benefit from using an integrative taxonomic approach, as we demonstrate here.

Highlights

The aquarium trade is a large worldwide industry worth >15 billion USD (Bartley, 2000; Penning et al, 2009) that supplies collectors with an assortment of >6300 species of algae, plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates (Chapman et al, 1997; Calado et al, 2003; Bruckner, 2005; Rhyne et al, 2009)
Population genetics of Lysmata boggessi Shrimp collections and sampling rationale Our results indicated that the species of peppermint shrimp traded at aquarium stores was not L. wurdemanni but L. boggessi
Relying upon an integrative taxonomy approach, our public market survey found that L. boggessi was the only species sold at the aquarium trade market in the southeastern USA

Summary

Introduction

The aquarium trade is a large worldwide industry worth >15 billion USD (Bartley, 2000; Penning et al, 2009) that supplies collectors with an assortment of >6300 species of algae, plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates (Chapman et al, 1997; Calado et al, 2003; Bruckner, 2005; Rhyne et al, 2009). The aquarium trade shares two characteristics with various other industries that rely on the exploitation of natural resources; sources of supply are diffuse and morphological identification of the species involved in the trade can be logistically challenging (because they are members of species complexes) or sometimes impossible (if the species is processed prior to sale) It is not surprising, that product misidentification is rampant in this industry, a major issue already detected in other industries that depend upon the extraction of ‘exotic’ natural resources such as marine turtles in the USA (Roman & Bowen, 2000), global whale meat market (Baker & Palumbi, 1994; Baker, Cipriano & Palumbi, 1996), sea horses in apothecary shops and curio stores (Sanders et al, 2008), black sturgeon caviar (DeSalle & Birstein, 1996), wild bush meat (Eaton et al, 2010), and several marine fisheries (‘Chilean sea bass’—Marko, Nance & Guynn, 2011; ‘European megrims’—Crego-Prieto et al, 2012; ‘hake’—Muñoz-Colmenero et al, 2015). In the case of the aquarium trade, a proper description of the species involved in the market place is relevant in the face of rising demand and increasing overexploitation (Green, 2003; Calado et al, 2003; Rhyne et al, 2009)

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