[Coral-List] Canthigaster rostrata masive death in San Andres Archipelago, Coral-List Digest, Vol 61, Issue 13

Fri Sep 13 11:26:26 EDT 2013

This type of event has apparently happened a number of times before for this
species, Canthigaster rostrata, and similar species; and was the subject of
a previous discussion on the Coral Reef list-serve back in 2008; and there
was a Reef Sites piece on the Yucatan event published in Coral Reefs in
2009.  The reference for the Yucatan article follows and is attached, but I
don't think it will go through to the list-serve.  Also, a note by Christy
Pattengill-Semmens from the REEF website regarding the prior Coral Reef
List-serve discussion and comments from John Ogden on it also follows.  The
link to the prior list-serve discussion did not work, at least for me.

Jack Sobel
4910 Earlston Drive
Bethesda, MD  20816
(301)320-0880
(202)262-6926
jack_sobel at verizon.net

Jordan-Garza A. G. , Diaz-Almeyda E. M. , Iglesias-Prieto R. , Maldonado M.
A. , Ortega J.
2009. Mass mortality of Canthigaster rostrata at the northeast coast of the
Yucatan
Peninsula. Coral Reefs 28(3):661-661.

>From REEF site
Population Explosion of Sharpnose Puffers - an explanation
Submitted by Christy on Wed, 12/31/2008 - 11:08. 

Hello all.

This phenomenon was recently noted by several researchers and scientists on
the Coral Reef Listserve. The most likely explanation for the explosion was
posted by Dr. John Ogden -- "My guess is that sharpnose puffers have the
same type of recruitment as Bill Gladfelter and I observed for balloonfish
(Diodon holocanthus) many years ago in St. Croix. The larvae are pelagic for
a long larval life, up to a year. During this interval; they slowly gather
into huge schools of many thousands of individuals (about 3cm long) which
then recruit en mass to whatever coastal region is favorable within the time
frame of development. The area then becomes completely flooded with recruits
which gradually disperse and are preyed upon. You could call this a sort of
17-year locust type of recruitment."

You can view the entire thread of Coral Listserv posts on this topic here --
http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/pipermail/coral-list/2008-December/038308.html

-- Christy Pattengill-Semmens
 REEF Director of Science
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-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of
coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Sent: Friday, September 13, 2013 9:13 AM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Coral-List Digest, Vol 61, Issue 13

Today's Topics:

   1. Canthigaster rostrata masive death in San Andres Archipelago,
      Seaflower Biophere Reserve, Colombia (Franck Gourdin)

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 10:44:50 -0400
From: Franck Gourdin
	<franck.gourdin.carspaw at guadeloupe-parcnational.fr>
Subject: [Coral-List] Canthigaster rostrata masive death in San Andres
	Archipelago, Seaflower Biophere Reserve, Colombia
To: coral-list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID: <5231D362.50805 at guadeloupe-parcnational.fr>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"

   Dear Colleagues,
    In the island of San Andr??s, southwestern Caribbean, Colombia, over the
   past two weeks we hav beene observing massive death of fish from the
specie
   Canthigaster rostrata, family Tetraodontidae, and common name "Caribbean
   sharpnose puffer". Mortality has been observed in individuals around 4 cm
   (1.5 inches) total length, which are driven by currents to all the
beaches
   of the island and appear dead in large numbers. In contrast, biologist,
   recreational divers and fishermen have observed that the species
densities
   have increased dramatically in the coral reef and can be observed all
over
   the water column. Moreover, we have received reports from the mainland in
   Colombia, Santa Marta and Islas del Rosario near Cartagena, where
increases
   in population densities of this species in coral reefs were also
observed,
   although not at the same level of what we have seeing here.
   From field observations, and consults to experts, we are dealing with a
   possible hypothesis of a reproductive event that generated a population
   explosion , which has resulted in overpopulation exceeding the carrying
   capacity . Nevertheless, CORALINA, has taken a series of actions in order
to
   establish the possible causes. In this regard , the Institute of Marine
   Research , INVEMAR, gave us a protocol for mortalities of marine
organisms;
   according to this protocol we proceeded to take water and fish samples at
   different sites of the island , which were sent to INVEMAR for lab
analysis.
    We are aware of a similar case with the same species in the Yucatan
   Peninsula in 2008, but we have no further information about it. It is our
   interest to know whether this phenomenon has occurred in other regions of
   the Caribbean and the possible causes for this.
   We appreciate any further information.
   Estimados colegas

   En la isla de San Andr??s, Caribe insular colombiano, desde hace poco
m??s de
   dos semanas se ha presentado una mortandad masiva de peces de la especie
   Canthigaster rostrata, perteneciente a la Familia Tetraodontidae, de
nombre
   com??n ???Caribbean sharpnose-puffer???. La mortandad se da sobre
individuos de
   aproximadamente 4 cm de longitud total, que llevados por las corrientes
   aparecen muertos en todas las playas de la isla en grandes cantidades.
En
   contraste con esto, bi??logos, operadores de buceo recreativo y
pescadores
   artesanales  han  visto  c??mo  las  densidades  de esta especie se han
   multiplicado notoriamente en el arrecife coralino. En este sentido, se
han
   recibido reportes desde la costa continental, zonas de Santa Marta e
Islas
   del Rosario cerca de Cartagena, donde tambi??n se registran aumentos en
las
   densidades poblacionales de esta especie, aunque no de la misma magnitud
de
   lo que se ve ac?? en la isla.

   Por observaciones en campo, y consultas a expertos, estamos manejando la
   hip??tesis de un posible evento reproductivo que ha generado una
explosi??n
   demogr??fica, la cual ha tenido como consecuencia una sobrepoblaci??n y
un
   eventual sobrepaso de su capacidad de carga. Sin embargo, la Corporaci??n
   para el Desarrollo Sostenible del Archipi??lago, CORALINA, ha tomado una
   serie  de acciones para tratar de establecer puntualmente las posibles
   causas, por lo que le ha solicitado apoyo de varias entidades. En este
   sentido, el Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas, INVEMAR, nos ha
facilitado
   un protocolo de actuaci??n en caso de mortandades de organismos marinos;
de
   acuerdo con ??ste se procedi?? a la toma de muestras de agua en
diferentes
   puntos de la isla, y muestras de individuos, las cuales fueron enviadas a
   INVEMAR para su an??lisis.

   Sabemos de un caso similar con la misma especie en la Pen??nsula de
Yucat??n
   en 2008, pero no tenemos mayor informaci??n al respecto. Es nuestro
inter??s
   conocer si este fen??meno se ha presentado en otras regiones del Caribe y
las
   posibles causas de ??ste.

   Agradecemos cualquier informaci??n.

   Nacor Bola??os-Cubillos
   Coordinador ??reas Protegidas y Proyecto Biodiversidad
   Nacor Bola??os [1]<areas.protegidas at coralina.gov.co>
   Corporaci??n para el Desarrollo Sostenible del Archipi??lago de San
Andr??s,
   Providencia y Santa Catalina - CORALINA
   Reserva de Biosfera y ??rea Marina Protegida Seaflower ??? COLOMBIA
   Tel??fonos: 57- 8- 5120080 - 57-8-5128272
   San Andr??s Isla Colombia

References

   1. mailto:areas.protegidas at coralina.gov.co

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