[Coral-List] Sharpnose puffer

Eva Salas salas.e at gmail.com
Sat Jan 3 13:18:19 EST 2009


In Costa Rica, I also noticed large amounts of sharpnose puffer. I was doing
fish surveys at Cahuita coral reefs, in October 2008. I visited Belize in
may 2008 and noticed that too, mainly in north Turneffe atoll.

Eva María Salas-De la Fuente
Universidad de Costa Rica
http://www.inweh.unu.edu/inweh/coastal/CoralReef/Students.htm






On Sat, Jan 3, 2009 at 11:00 AM, <coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Re: Sharpnose Puffer (Tupper, Mark (WorldFish))
>   2. Re: Sharpnose Puffer (gochfeld at olemiss.edu)
>   3. Re: Sharpnose Puffer (Melanie McField)
>   4. Re: Sharpnose Puffer (Douglas Fenner)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 23:45:58 +0800
> From: "Tupper, Mark (WorldFish)" <M.Tupper at CGIAR.ORG>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Sharpnose Puffer
> To: <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Message-ID:
>        <
> DF5BEA7FB371DE43871F62A1B56901D7042FF893 at GOBY.WORLDFISH.CGIARAD.ORG>
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>
> These sorts of mass recruitment events are common for many
> species/locations and are even the basis for several major artisanal
> reef fisheries, such as the seasonal fisheries or "runs" for juvenile
> mullet, rabbitfish, jacks, bigeye scad (atulai) and goatfish in
> Micronesia. Needless to say, fisheries based on recruitment events are
> highly variable. For example, the seasonal runs of juveniles can account
> for anywhere from <1% to >50% of the annual reef fish catch in Guam.
>
> Dr. Mark H. Tupper
> Scientist - Coral Reefs & Reef Fisheries
> The WorldFish Center
> Los Banos, Laguna, PHILIPPINES
> Tel +632 580-5659 (2889) GMT +8
> Mobile +63 917-524-0864
> http://www.worldfishcenter.org
> Reducing poverty and hunger by improving fisheries and aquaculture.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:07:09 -0600
> From: gochfeld at olemiss.edu
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Sharpnose Puffer
> To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Message-ID: <495e57cd.1de.6d9.30185 at olemiss.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Happy New Year Everyone!
>
> I've noticed a moderate decline in sharpnose puffer numbers
> over the past 2-3 years near Lee Stocking Island, Bahamas,
> so I'll be curious to see if there is an increase later this
> spring.  If anyone is there sooner than that and notices
> anything, I'd love to hear about it.
>
> Regarding predation, I can't say who are the major predators
> of Canthigasters, but I want to draw your attention to a
> Reef Site in an upcoming issue of Coral Reefs that describes
> predation on a sharpnose puffer by a peacock flounder.  This
> is now available in Online First at
> http://www.springerlink.com/content/l9612687h7451578/fulltext.html.
> Perhaps this is more common than we think.
>
> I also want to add to the growing list of boom and bust
> recruitment events.  In the 80's and 90's (at least), we saw
> periodic recruitment explosions of the fantail filefish,
> Pervagor spilosoma, on the reefs in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu.  This
> would be followed by huge mortalities, with dead fish
> washing up on the beaches.
>
> Best,
> Deb Gochfeld
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 14:16:55 -0600
> From: "Melanie McField" <mcfield at healthyreefs.org>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Sharpnose Puffer
> To: sale at uwindsor.ca
> Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Message-ID:
>        <f26d79480901021216l6505b2bnc77786cf83ff9afa at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> I also noted the increase in sharpnose puffers in shallow back reefs North
> of Half Moon Caye, Lighthouse Reef, and in the Caye Caulker Marine Reserve
> (shallowbackreef) Belize, in late November. I didn't see any mortality at
> that time. It seems fairly widespread through the NW Caribbean.
>
> Melanie
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 31, 2008 at 11:15 PM, <sale at uwindsor.ca> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> > This is in response to the post from Will Welbourn in Roatan.  He has
> > apparently seen the same exceptional recruitment pulse (or a similarly
> > timed one) to one first reported to me by Kirah Forman, of Belize
> > Fisheries, who is based at Hol Chan.  Subsequently I heard from Gerardo
> > Gold of CINVESTAV, Mexico that one of his students had seen large numbers
> > of this species from sites between Boca Paila and Akumal on the Yucatan
> > east coast.  In both cases the animals were present as very large numbers
> > of juveniles, and there was also high mortality possibly from disease,
> but
> > equally likely from starvation.  I checked with a number of other fish
> > guys around the world and the consensus was that this species, like other
> > relatives among the puffers, filefish and trigger fish, is prone to
> > occasional exceptional recruitment events.  The interesting thing to me,
> > now that we have heard of similar observations in Roatan, is just how
> > extensive has the good recruitment been this autumn?  Are there several
> > patches of high recruitment (Mexico, northern Belize, and Roatan) or has
> > this species been successful over this relatively enormous swath of the
> > western Caribbean?
> >
> > Peter Sale
> > Assistant Director
> > United Nations University -- International Network on Water, Environment
> > and Health (UNU-INWEH)
> > www.inweh.unu.edu
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Coral-List mailing list
> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Melanie McField
> Coordinator, Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative
> Smithsonian Institution
> 1061 Queen Helmut St, Belize City, Belize, Central America
> tel 501-223-7680  fax 501-223-7681
> email: mcfield at healthyreefs.org  or mcfieldm at si.edu
> www.healthyreefs.org
> www.mnh.si.edu
>
> Join the International Society for Reef Studies
> www.fit.edu/isrs/
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 19:49:45 -1100
> From: "Douglas Fenner" <dfenner at blueskynet.as>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Sharpnose Puffer
> To: "John Ogden" <jogden at marine.usf.edu>,       "Will Welbourn"
>        <will at bayislandsdiver.com>,     "Alison Green" <agreen at TNC.ORG>,
> "Peter
>        Doherty" <p.doherty at aims.gov.au>,       "Peter Craig" <
> Peter_Craig at nps.gov>
> Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Message-ID: <008601c96d6f$7d7fba50$297f46ca at DOUGLASFENNER>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
>        reply-type=original
>
> In American Samoa, there are mass recruitments in most years, particularly
> of the surgeonfish Ctenochaetus striatus, which is our most common adult
> reef fish.  They seem to come in several pulses each year, and when they
> show up they are on the order of 4-5 cm long.  The adults are black, but
> these new recruits have thin horizontal red lines on them.  Then at some
> point later on, they all change to black.  So you can tell when
> another recruitment pulse occurs, because suddenly you have more with red
> lines.  There are quite a few of them that settle in most years, but in a
> few years spectacular numbers settle, huge schools of perhaps hundreds of
> thousands have been reported, and if they are in your transect, they can
> dominate the biomass not to mention number of individuals (Ali Green
> observed such schools here, including in her transects in 2002).  After
> recruitment
> pulses, the numbers seem to go down steadily, but not really rapidly I
> would
> say, Peter Craig here has data on that.  If I remember, Ali Green saw in
> that huge pulse that many were in poor condition later, very thin, ragged
> fins, and so on (it's all in her report).  I've not seen any like that in
> normal years, mind you I haven't studied it specifically.
>     I'd recommend a paper on the survival of new recruits in Tahiti- if I
> remember, 60% were lost in the first 24 hours.  They used a crest net to
> measure the recruitment each night, and daytime transects to record new
> recruits.  They then subtracts to measure the mortality each 24 hr.
> References below.
>      American Samoa has also had mass recruitments of two species of
> rabbitfish in recent years, even though the adults here are quite uncommon.
> We're not sure where they are coming from.  They also recruit at roughly
> the
> same size as the surgeons.  There are also recruitment events of goatfish,
> and they are even larger, maybe around 10 cm or more when they settle.
> There is a
> traditional Samoan fishery for the newly settled goatfish, and a
> traditional
> basket woven as a fish trap used to collect them.  They have a name
> specific
> just for these goatfish recruits.  So Samoans have known about them for a
> long time, possibly for nearly the 3000 years people have been here.  They
> probably know a lot more useful information, too.
>     And like many things on coral reefs, recruitment seems to be patchy in
> both space and time.
> -Doug Fenner
>
> Doherty, P. J., Dufour, V., Galzin, R. Hixon, M. A., Meekan, M. G., and S..
> Planes.  2004.  High mortality during settlement is a population bottleneck
> for a tropical surgeonfish.  Ecology 85: 2422-2428
>
> Almany, GR, Webster MS 2006.  The predation gauntlet: early post-settlement
> mortality in reef fishes.  Coral Reefs 25: 19-22
>
> Green, A.  2002.  Status of the coral reefs on the main volcanic islands of
> American Samoa: a resurvey of long term monitoring sites (benthic
> communities, fish communities, and key macroinvertebrates).  Report to
> DMWR.
> http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/basch/uhnpscesu/picrp/complbibG.htm#gg
>
> Craig, P.  2005.  Natural History Guide to American Samoa, 2nd Edition.
> National Park of American Samoa, Dept. Marine & Wildlife Resources, and
> American Samoa Community College, Pago Pago.  96 pages.
>
> http://www.nps.gov/npsa/naturescience/natlhistguide.htm
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Ogden" <jogden at marine.usf.edu>
> To: "Will Welbourn" <will at bayislandsdiver.com>
> Cc: <Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 4:49 AM
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Sharpnose Puffer
>
>
> > Hi Will,
> >
> > 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.
> >
> > It would be interesting to see if others have observed this type of
> > recruitment which may be more common than we know.
> >
> > Happy New Year!
> >
> > Will Welbourn wrote:
> >> Hello
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I was wanting to post about the huge population increase I have noted in
> >> the
> >> waters of Roatan Honduras.  As a full time dive instructor here for the
> >> last
> >> five years the last six months I have observed an increase of 300-400%
> in
> >> the abundance of this fish.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Anyone know why or what it may indicate?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Regards
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Will Welbourn, Course Director and Director of Roatan Marine Park
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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