[Coral-List] Conservation success for Nassau Grouper in the Cayman Islands

[Christy Semmens]

We are pleased to share a new paper published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science highlighting exciting results from the Grouper Moon Project in the Cayman Islands. In both Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, Nassau Grouper aggregations have more than tripled in response to adaptive management by the Cayman Islands government. On Little Cayman, the aggregating population grew from around 1,200 fish in 2009 to over 7,000 in 2018.

The study used a two-pronged approach that included tagging and video census data for monitoring and counting Nassau Grouper populations in an effort to more accurately estimate annual numbers of fish in the population, and thus provide insight into the effects of ongoing conservation efforts. While many governments have enacted regional or seasonal fishing closures in an attempt to allow recovery of overfished stocks of aggregating reef fishes, this is the first study to provide evidence that these measures can be successful across multiple decades.

The Grouper Moon Project represents nearly 20 years of research, monitoring, and outreach efforts, coordinated by Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) and Cayman Islands Department of Environment, in collaboration with researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Oregon State University. It is the Caribbean’s oldest continuous grouper spawning aggregation research program, and represents one of the most advanced, multi-faceted tropical fisheries research programs in the world.

The open access paper is attached and is available online here: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/01/01/1917132117 <https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/01/01/1917132117>.

Recovery of critically endangered Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) in the Cayman Islands following targeted conservation actions.
Lynn Waterhouse, Scott A. Heppell, Christy V. Pattengill-Semmens, Croy McCoy, Phillippe Bush, Bradley C. Johnson, Brice X. Semmens. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2020, 201917132; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1917132117




Christy Pattengill-Semmens, Ph.D.
Director of Science
Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF)
www.REEF.org <http://www.reef.org/>