Residency, site affinity and coastal movements of the southern African endemic spotted gully shark Triakis megalopterus

Ocean conservation boosts climate change mitigation and adaptation

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a management tool of global interest for biodiversity conservation and fisheries management. Much of the research attention focused on MPAs is directed towards the cost and benefits of MPAs on commercial fisheries. This chapter compares the development and implementation of MPAs in Australia and the Mediterranean and their potential impacts on the recreational fishing sector. These two contrasting regions differ significantly with respect to bio-physical characteristics, governance arrangements, environmental pressures, experience with MPAs and recreational fishing standpoints. These differences have led to differences in definitions of MPAs and in the development and implementation of MPAs. In both regions, the impact of MPAs on recreational fishing businesses has not been thoroughly analysed and warrants further detailed analysis. Local economies dependent on recreational fishing may suffer when MPAs are of a size and in locations that do not leave significant fishing areas that can still be accessed.

The potential effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) as a conservation tool for large sharks has been questioned due to the limited spatial extent of most MPAs in contrast to the complex life history and high mobility of many sharks. Here we evaluated the movement dynamics of a highly migratory apex predatory shark (tiger shark Galeocerdo cuvier) at the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR). Using data from satellite tracking passive acoustic telemetry, and stereo baited remote underwater video, we estimated residency, activity spaces, site fidelity, distributional abundances and migration patterns from the GMR and in relation to nesting beaches of green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), a seasonally abundant and predictable prey source for large tiger sharks. Tiger sharks exhibited a high degree of philopatry, with 93% of the total satellite-tracked time across all individuals occurring within the GMR. Large sharks (> 200 cm TL) concentrated their movements in front of the two most important green sea turtle-nesting beaches in the GMR, visiting them on a daily basis during nocturnal hours. In contrast, small sharks (< 200 cm TL) rarely visited turtle-nesting areas and displayed diurnal presence at a third location where only immature sharks were found. Small and some large individuals remained in the three study areas even outside of the turtle-nesting season. Only two sharks were satellite-tracked outside of the GMR, and following long-distance migrations, both individuals returned to turtle-nesting beaches at the subsequent turtle-nesting season. The spatial patterns of residency and site fidelity of tiger sharks suggest that the presence of a predictable source of prey and suitable habitats might reduce the spatial extent of this large shark that is highly migratory in other parts of its range. This highly philopatric behaviour enhances the potential effectiveness of the GMR for their protection.

Baseline data for marine protected areas planning and fisheries monitoring: Potential conflicts between recreational IUU and commercial fisheries in the proposed “Taza” MPA (Algeria, SW Mediterranean)

We used acoustic telemetry to describe the patterns of vertical movement, site fidelity and residency of grey reef sharks (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) on the outer slope of coral reefs in Palau, Micronesia, over a period of two years and nine months. We tagged 39 sharks (mostly adult females) of which 31 were detected regularly throughout the study. Sharks displayed strong inter-annual residency with greater attendance at monitored sites during summer than winter months. More individuals were detected during the day than at night. Mean depths of tagged sharks increased from 35 m in winter to 60 m in spring following an increase in water temperature at 60 m, with maximum mean depths attained when water temperatures at 60 m stabilised around 29°C. Sharks descended to greater depths and used a wider range of depths around the time of the full moon. There were also crepuscular cycles in mean depth, with sharks moving into shallower waters at dawn and dusk each day. We suggest that daily, lunar and seasonal cycles in vertical movement and residency are strategies for optimising both energetic budgets and foraging behaviour. Cyclical patterns of movement in response to environmental variables might affect the susceptibility of reef sharks to fishing, a consideration that should be taken into account in the implementation of conservation strategies.

Event Abstract Back to Event Changes in the fish community structure after the implementation of Marine Protected Areas in the south western coast of Portugal Tadeu J. Pereira1, 2*, Joana Manique1, Bernardo Quintella1, 3, Nuno Castro1, Pedro R. Almeida2 and José L. Costa1, 3 1 MARE-ULisboa, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, Portugal 2 MARE - UEvora, Departamento de Biologia, Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal., Portugal 3 Departamento de Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are increasingly being recommended as management tools for biodiversity conservation and fisheries. With the purpose of protecting the region’s biodiversity and prevent the over exploitation of marine resources, in February 2011 the MPAs of Ilha do Pessegueiro and Cabo Sardão were implemented in the “Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina “(PNSACV) Natural Park, south western coast of Portugal. In these areas, commercial and recreational fishing became prohibited. In order to evaluate the effects of these MPAs, the structure of its fish communities and of adjacent control areas without fishing restrictions were studied in 2011/12 (immediately after implementation) and 2013 (two years after implementation). A total of 4 sampling campaigns were conducted (summer 2011, winter 2012, summer 2013 and winter 2013) using bottom trawl and gillnets. Faunal communities from the MPAs (treatment) were compared with adjacent areas (controls) and changes evaluated with time. Results revealed significant changes on abundance, having this parameter a slight increase after the implementation of the MPAs. Also, significant differences were observed on the structure of the protected areas communities when compared with neighbouring areas where fishing was still allowed, even though the small amount of time elapsed. In addition, specimens of larger size occurred more frequently within Ilha do Pessegueiro MPA in the last year of the study. Despite the young age of these MPAs, changes on their fish communities’ structure are already visible after only 3 years of protection, showing that these management measures may promote sustainable exploitation of fishing resources as well as protect species with conservation interest, thus leading to a global biodiversity increase. Acknowledgements This study is part of project PROTECT (31-03-05-FEP-0012; www.protect.uevora.pt) co-funded by Programme PROMAR. Keywords: marine reserve, MPA effectiveness, Fishing prohibition, no take zone, PNSACV Marine Park Conference: XV European Congress of Ichthyology, Porto, Portugal, 7 Sep - 11 Sep, 2015. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Ecology, Conservation and Invasive Species Citation: Pereira TJ, Manique J, Quintella B, Castro N, Almeida PR and Costa JL (2015). Changes in the fish community structure after the implementation of Marine Protected Areas in the south western coast of Portugal. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XV European Congress of Ichthyology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2015.03.00025 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 23 Oct 2015; Published Online: 04 Nov 2015. * Correspondence: Dr. Tadeu J Pereira, MARE-ULisboa, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, Lisbon, Portugal, tjpereira@fc.ul.pt Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Tadeu J Pereira Joana Manique Bernardo Quintella Nuno Castro Pedro R Almeida José L Costa Google Tadeu J Pereira Joana Manique Bernardo Quintella Nuno Castro Pedro R Almeida José L Costa Google Scholar Tadeu J Pereira Joana Manique Bernardo Quintella Nuno Castro Pedro R Almeida José L Costa PubMed Tadeu J Pereira Joana Manique Bernardo Quintella Nuno Castro Pedro R Almeida José L Costa Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

&lt;i&gt;Abstract&lt;/i&gt; .—Recreational-only fishing areas (ROFAs; i.e., areas where commercial fishing is excluded, leaving sole fishing access to recreational fishers) are often implemented to reduce conflict between recreational and commercial fishing sectors and to enhance recreational fishing quality. This study explored recreational and commercial fishers’ perceptions of estuarine ROFAs in north Queensland, Australia, with the aim of understanding whether desired socioeconomic benefits are realized. Recreational and commercial fishers in the study area believed that competition between the sectors was a problem; however, only recreational fishers suggested increased segregation of the sectors via ROFAs as a solution. Recreational fishers were largely unaware of the location of current ROFAs in the study area and therefore did not preferentially use these areas compared to areas open to commercial fishing. Likewise, recreational fishers did not deliberately avoid areas frequented by commercial fishers, and the presence or absence of commercial fishing was not a major factor influencing recreational fishing site choice. Further, while recreational fishers expected to catch more fish in areas where commercial fishing does not occur, they had not noticed an improvement in catches in more recently formed ROFAs. Collectively, these results suggest that the existing ROFAs in the study area are not currently providing the expected benefits for fishers and that adding more ROFAs would be unlikely to reduce conflict between commercial and recreational fishers. The effectiveness of the ROFAs may be improved if recreational fishers are better informed about their location. Further investigation is required to understand why recreational fishers do not choose to use current ROFAS, the cause of conflict between the recreational and commercial sectors, and whether expected catch benefits of ROFAs are being realized.

The effectiveness of conservation efforts, including marine protected areas (MPAs), hinges on adequate knowledge of movement patterns, habitat associations and habitat-specific survival rates of mobile organisms. California spiny lobsters (Panulirus interruptus) support commercial and recreational fishing in southern California; however, we lack basic information to determine whether MPAs planned for the region will enhance abundance. Working within and outside a small southern California MPA, we (1) quantified the movement patterns and home ranges of the lobster over two time scales, (2) determined lobster day and night habitat associations and (3) determined habitat-specific predation risk. Lobsters exhibited high site fidelity and small home ranges (geometric mean of 651 m2 and 5912 m2 per week, on the basis of 50% and 95% kernel utilisation distributions, respectively). Lobsters were associated with rocky habitat during the day and with the red algae Plocamium cartilagineum while feeding at night. Relative survival rates of lobsters were high across vegetated and unvegetated habitats at night, and were highest in surfgrass (Phyllopsadix torreyi) habitat during the day. Our results highlight the need to consider how movement patterns vary over short and long time scales, and how habitat use may vary from day to night for nocturnally active species such as lobsters, when planning MPAs.

Movement patterns of the parrotfish Sparisoma cretense in a Mediterranean marine protected area

Marine protected area (MPA) effectiveness is highly dependent on the movement patterns of adult fish. In this study, we selected 3 species, Sparisoma viride (Scaridae), Acanthurus chirurgus (Acanthuridae), and Lutjanus apodus (Lutjanidae), to quantify their home ranges, evaluate their site fidelity, and identify movement patterns in Martinique (1436' N, 6132' W). Two complementary tagging methods (external Floy tags and acoustic telemetry) were utilised to moni tor movement patterns on different spatial scales from November 2009 to November 2011. We tagged 673 A. chirurgus, 131 L. apodus, and 217 S. viride with Floy tags and 30 A. chirurgus, 47 L. apodus, and 37 S. viride with acoustic tags. The results revealed that several individuals maintained a small preferential site for several months to over a year. Other individuals were able to move long distances (< 9 km) outside the MPA over a short period (< 3 d) and never returned to the MPA. This study highlights the importance of using multiple tagging methods and long-term observations to improve the monitoring of fish movement relative to MPA design and effectiveness. Despite the fragmented habitat in the studied MPA, the results highlight that small MPAs (9.56 km 2 ) could protect the 3 studied species. This study also demonstrated that natural barriers (large areas of silt and sand) were crossed by some individuals. Our findings provide relevant information on these species that should be utilised to better inform MPA design and decisionmaking processes, management, and overall MPA effectiveness.

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 517:229-250 (2014) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11043 Characterizing Pacific halibut movement and habitat in a Marine Protected Area using net squared displacement analysis methods Julie K. Nielsen1,*, Philip N. Hooge2,4, S. James Taggart2,5, Andrew C. Seitz3 1School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 17101 Pt. Lena Loop Rd., Juneau, Alaska 99801, USA 2US Geological Survey Alaska Science Center, 3100 National Park Road, Juneau, Alaska 99801, USA 3School of fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, PO Box 757220, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA 4Present address: Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, PO Box 140, Gustavus, Alaska 99826, USA 5Present address: 1350 Yulupa Ave. Apt. B, Santa Rosa, California 95405, USA *Corresponding author: julie.nielsen@gmail.com ABSTRACT: We characterized small-scale movement patterns and habitat of acoustic-tagged adult (68 to 220 cm total length) female Pacific halibut during summer and fall in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, a marine protected area (MPA). We used net squared displacement analysis methods to identify 2 movement states, characterize individual dispersal patterns, and relate habitat variables to movement scales. Movement states identified for 32 of 43 halibut consisted of (1) a non-dispersive ‘residential’ movement state (n = 27 fish), where movement was restricted to an average movement radius of 401.3 m (95% CI 312.2-515.9 m) over a median observation period of 58 d, and (2) a ‘dispersive’ movement state (n = 15 fish), where movements of up to 18 km occurred over a median observation period of 27 d. Some fish (n = 10) exhibited both movement states. Individual fish demonstrated primarily non-random dispersal patterns including home range (n = 17), site fidelity (return to previously occupied locations following forays, n = 6), and shifted home ranges (n = 5). However, we also observed a random dispersal pattern (n = 4) with an estimated mean ± SE diffusion rate of 0.9 ± 0.05 km2 d-1. Home range size increased with depth but not fish size. Home range locations were associated with heterogeneous habitat, intermediate tidal velocities, and depths <100 m. Observations of non-dispersive movement patterns, relatively small home ranges, and site fidelity for adult females suggest that MPAs such as Glacier Bay may have utility for conservation of Pacific halibut broodstock. KEY WORDS: Movement ecology · Home range · Site fidelity · Net Squared Displacement · Dispersal · Marine Protected Area · Flatfish · Pacific halibut Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Nielsen JK, Hooge PN, Taggart SJ, Seitz AC (2014) Characterizing Pacific halibut movement and habitat in a Marine Protected Area using net squared displacement analysis methods. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 517:229-250. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11043 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 517. Online publication date: December 15, 2014 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2014 Inter-Research.

Underprotected Marine Protected Areas in a Global Biodiversity Hotspot

Marine protected areas (MPAs) can protect and restore marine biodiversity and fisheries, but there are concerns that they may also benefit invasive species. The spatial and temporal colonization of invasive lionfish ( Pterois miles ) in the eastern Mediterranean was compared across zones with varying fishing restrictions (no fishing, recreational and commercial fishing, and commercial fishing only), and stations where targeted removal events were conducted by volunteer SCUBA divers. Lionfish density in no fishing areas was nearly double that of areas with commercial fishing only, and over four times greater than in areas where both commercial and recreational fishing were allowed. Lionfish density increased with depth, possibly due to easier human exploitation in shallow waters (0–10 m) that are accessible to recreational spearfishers. Targeted removals by volunteer divers decreased lionfish densities by over 60%, while areas without removals had a 200%–400% increase. Along with management actions, natural and ecological processes might drive lionfish densities within MPAs, and the speed with which lionfish colonized fishery‐restricted zones, emphasized the need for a more sophisticated MPA management strategy that considers invasive species impacts and dynamics in an ecosystem‐based approach.

Coastal bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) form a mosaic of resident and seasonal migratory populations along the United States Atlantic seaboard. Seasonal, poorly known migrants (identified as a separate stock) move as far north as New Jersey. During 2003–2005, 73 boat‐based photo‐identification surveys were conducted in southern New Jersey to discern seasonal occurrence, distribution, and patterns of movement and site fidelity. Neonates, young‐of‐year, and adults occurred in the study area from late May through late September, corresponding to water temperatures of 14.0–16.3°C. Of 205 individuals identified, 44% (n= 90) were sighted multiple times within or among years, including 10% (n= 20) of individuals identified in all 3 yr. Almost half (47%) of the multiple sightings were observed along a core area encompassed by the southern part of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve. In contrast to stocks studied in southern coastal areas of the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, estuaries were used significantly less than open‐beach habitat, which is consistent with the relative prey abundance in these habitats. Research at additional sites will help confirm whether bottlenose dolphins at the northern end of their migratory range exhibit local site fidelity and habitat preferences similar to those found in this study.

Wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) are considered rare or threatened throughout their range. Populations in Iowa occur at the western periphery of the species' range and may be particularly vulnerable to extirpation due to low population density, geographic isolation with restricted opportunities for gene flow, a small range, and a high percentage of land that has been converted for agriculture. To improve our understanding of the ecological needs of the species and to provide targeted conservation of required habitat, determining home range size, site fidelity, and movement patterns is needed. We conducted a 2-yr radiotelemetry study on wood turtles in Iowa to provide baseline data on movement patterns (including estimated total distance moved in an active season and mean daily movement) and home range size and site fidelity between years of survey. Home range size of adult male and female wood turtles differed significantly for 100%, 95%, and 50% minimum convex polygon home range, with male mean home range being nearly 3 times the mean size of female home range. Stream home range length also differed significantly between males and females, with males utilizing a larger portion of lotic habitat. Both sexes showed a high degree of site fidelity to annual home ranges but not to specific overwintering locations. Our study provides important data on home range size, degree of site fidelity, and movement patterns of wood turtles from an isolated population in Iowa at the southwest periphery of the species' range. These data will inform conservation agencies on relevant habitat protection and management strategies of riparian areas that are necessary for the continued survival and protection of the species in the state.