Settlement and recruitment of coral reef fishes in moderately exploited and overexploited Caribbean ecosystems: implications for marine protected areas

Abstract

In order to evaluate the impact of heavy exploitation on settlement and recruitment rates of coral reef fishes, the abundances of pre-settlement and pre-recruitment fishes were monitored at Discovery Bay, Jamaica, where fish stocks are heavily exploited and at several sites around the British Virgin Islands (BVI) where exploitation is moderate. Light traps set concurrently at Discovery Bay and at three fringing reefs in BVI caught many species of pre-settlement reef fishes, except grunts and parrotfish, and one BVI site (Hans Creek) may be an area of particularly high settlement. In contrast, heavily exploited fish stocks at Discovery Bay had greatly reduced settlement rates compared with all three sites in BVI. Settlement rates of unexploited species were more similar in Discovery Bay and BVI. Abundances of juvenile fish caught in wire-mesh traps were monitored over several years in Discovery Bay and at three sites in BVI. Consistently low numbers of exploited species were taken at Discovery Bay compared to the BVI sites, indicating that settlement and recruitment rates have been low in recent years. Exploited fish populations in the small marine protected area (MPA) at Discovery Bay are expected to increase very slowly as a result of settlement and recruitment limitation.