Éditeur(s) : Wiley-blackwell
Résumé : The reef fauna connectivity of the West Indian Ocean (WIO) is one of the least studied globally. Here we use genetic analyses of the grouper Epinephelus merra (Bloch 1793) to determine patterns of connectivity and to identify barriers to dispersal in this WIO marine area. Phylogeographic and population-level analyses were conducted on cytochrome b sequences and microsatellites (13 loci) from 557 individuals sampled in 15 localities distributed across the West Indian Ocean. Additional samples from the Pacific Ocean were used to benchmark the WIO population structure. The high level of divergence revealed between Indian and Pacific localities (of about 4.5% in sequences) might be the signature of the major tectonic and climatic changes operating at the Plio-Pleistocene transition, congruently with numerous examples of Indo-Pacific speciation. In comparison, the E. merra sequences from the Indian Ocean constitute a monophyletic clade with a low average genetic distance (d < 0.5%). However both genetic markers indicated some structure within this ocean. The main structure revealed was the isolation of the Maldives from the WIO localities (a different group signature identified by clustering analysis, great values of differentiation). Both marker types reveal further significant structure within the WIO, mainly the isolation of the Mascarene Islands (significant AMOVA and isolation-by-distance patterns) and some patchy structure between the northernmost localities and within the Mozambique Channel. The WIO genetic structure of E. merra appeared congruent with main biogeographic boundaries and oceanographic currents.
Marine Ecology-an Evolutionary Perspective (0173-9565) (Wiley-blackwell), 2015-09 , Vol. 36 , N. 3 , P. 447-461

Droits : 2014 Blackwell Verlag GmbH
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00189/30046/28566.pdf
DOI:10.1111/maec.12153
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00189/30046/

Résumé : Le mérou géant, Epinephelus itajara, espèce en danger critique d’extinction au niveau mondial, est présent dans les eaux turbides et saumâtres de la Guyane française où l’espèce est exploitée par une pêcherie côtière. Dans la partie est du plateau continental guyanais, les mérous géants se localisent autour de tous les sites rocheux marins où ils se répartissent en fonction de la profondeur et du faciès (éboulis ou tombant). Les analyses des isotopes stables du carbone et de l’azote suggèrent qu’environ 30 % des mérous géants < 115 cm présents sur ces sites rocheux, proviendraient des mangroves alentours. Les analyses de contenus stomacaux révèlent un changement ontogénétique du régime alimentaire. Les petits individus (< 90 cm) s’alimentent principalement de Crustacés puis intègrent progressivement les poissons à leur alimentation jusqu’à devenir essentiellement piscivores au-delà de 140 cm. La population de Guyane est principalement composée d’individus juvéniles : seulement 8,5 % des individus capturés en Guyane a plus de 6 ans. Ces jeunes mérous sont très territoriaux durant les 4-5 premières années de leur vie puis ne sont plus retrouvés sur les sites rocheux. Le devenir de ces juvéniles est incertain, soit ils sont pêchés, soit ils migrent vers d’autres sites ou vers les agrégations de reproduction. Cependant, les mérous géants ne semblent pas se reproduire en Guyane. Il est possible que les conditions environnementales (forte turbidité et température) ne favorisent pas le développement gonadique, ce qui engendrerait une omission totale de reproduction. Le suivi par tags satellite suggère que les mérous géants migrent dans le sens des courants marins vers Trinidad-et-Tobago, potentiellement pour la reproduction. Aucun mouvement vers le Brésil n’a été mis en évidence bien que les stocks de mérous géants du Brésil et de Guyane semblent liés. En effet, ces deux stocks évoluent conjointement avec un déclin des populations au début des années 90. Le maintien de la population de mérou géant en Guyane se ferait grâce à l’apport de larves des sites d’agrégation du Brésil par le courant marin. La mortalité totale des mérous géants (0,65) est aussi élevée au sein de la réserve marine ainsi que sur les sites de pêche. Cela suggère que l’interdiction de pêche à la réserve n’est pas respectée et que les grands individus quittent la réserve pour des sites plus spacieux. En supposant que la population de mérous géants adultes a été réduite à cause de la pêche, une protection régionale des individus > 150 cm doit être instaurée afin de régénérer le stock d’individus matures. Il semble nécessaire de développer une politique de gestion internationale de l’espèce, surtout entre la Guyane et le Brésil, afin de conserver les populations de mérous géants d’Amérique du Sud.
The critically endangered Goliath Grouper, Epinephelus itajara, is found in the turbid and brackish waters of French Guiana, where the species is subject to a coastal fishery. Goliath Grouper populations inhabit all rocky habitats and exhibit increasing abundance with depth. Around 30% of individuals less than 115 cm may derive from the abundant mangrove habitat along the french Guiana coast. There is a ontogenetic shift of the diet, primarily crustacivorous, individuals >140 cm become piscivorous. The Goliath Grouper population in French Guiana is composed primarily og juvelines. The fate of the juvelines is unknonw, some may be caught in the fishery, others may move to other habitat. No evidence of spawning or gonadal readiness was found in french Guiana. it is possible that environmental conditions (high turbidity and temperature) are not conducive to reproductive activity. Goliath Grouper may migrate down current from French Guiana to Trinidad and Tobago or further. No movement of Goliath Grouper was found against the current toward Brazil. French Guiana juveniles may be derived from spawns occuring off Brazil. Calculated total mortality of Goliath Grouper off French Guiana is high (0.65) in both fished and protected areas suggesting that illegal fishing is occuring within the protected area, or that emigration rates are high. Assuming that the adult population of Goliath Grouper in French Guiana has been reduced due to fishing, protection of spawning-size adults (larger than about 150 cm TL) should be instated.

http://www.theses.fr/2014AGUY0721/document

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Inter-Research
Résumé : International audience
Many large groupers form spawning aggregations, returning to the same spawning sites in consecutive spawning seasons. Connectivity between spawning aggregations is thus assured by larval dispersal. This study looks into the genetic structure and gene flow among spawning aggregations of a large grouper, the gulf coney Hyporthodus acanthistius, in the northern Gulf of California. First, using the mitochondrial control region and 11 microsatellites, we calculated FST metrics and conducted a Bayesian clustering analysis to determine structure among 5 spawning aggregations. Shallow genetic structure was found, separating the southernmost spawning aggregate from the remainder. Second, we used the results from the structure analysis and local water circulation patterns to delineate 3 distinct models of gene flow. The best-supported model, in which the southernmost spawning aggregate formed one group and all other spawning aggregates were nested into a second group, was the one that was consistent with water circulation during the species’ spawning season. Larval retention within a seasonal anticyclonic gyre that formed during the gulf coney’s spawning season may be responsible for the patterns found. This study highlights the importance of local oceanographic conditions in dictating the structure among spawning aggregations even at small geographic scales and contributes to informed management plans for this overexploited grouper.
Marine Ecology Progress Series

hal-01301199
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01301199
DOI : 10.3354/meps10637

Éditeur(s) : Actes de colloques Ifremer, Tahiti, French Polynesia, 20 Feb - 4 Mar 1989, n°9, chap. 52, pp.543-557
Résumé : The Polynesian grouper, Epinephelus microdon , was chosen as an experimental model in order to investigate about factors controlling sexuality in groupers.

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/1989/acte-1439.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/1439/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD The Royal Society
Résumé : International audience
Conservation commonly requires trade-offs between social and ecological goals. For tropical small-scale fisheries, spatial scales of socially appropriate management are generally small— the median no-take locally managed marine area (LMMA) area throughout the Pacific is less than 1 km 2. This is of particular concern for large coral reef fishes, such as many species of grouper, which migrate to aggregations to spawn. Current data suggest that the catchment areas (i.e. total area from which individuals are drawn) of such aggregations are at spatial scales that preclude effective community-based management with no-take LMMAs. We used acoustic telemetry and tag-returns to examine reproductive migrations and catchment areas of the grouper Epinephelus fuscoguttatus at a spawning aggregation in Papua New Guinea. Protection of the resultant catchment area of approximately 16 km 2 using a no-take LMMA is socially untenable here and throughout much of the Pacific region. However, we found that spawning migrations were skewed towards shorter distances. Consequently, expanding the current 0.2 km 2 no-take LMMA to 1–2 km 2 would protect approximately 30–50% of the spawning population throughout the non-spawning season. Contrasting with current knowledge, our results demonstrate that species with moderate reproductive migrations can be managed at scales congruous with spatially restricted management tools.
ISSN: 2054-5703

Droits : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
hal-01297717
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01297717
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01297717/document
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01297717/file/150694.full.pdf
DOI : 10.1098/rsos.150694

Éditeur(s) : Elsevier
Résumé : In the Caribbean, snappers (Lutjanidae) and groupers (Serranidae) are often heavily exploited by artisanal or industrial fisheries. This paper analyzes the catches of an artisanal fishery selectively targeting these species with a moderate fishing pressure in the Bay Islands (Honduras), and discusses the implications on the understanding of the early stages of development of reef fisheries. Although snappers and groupers are targeted with handlines and spearguns in the whole archipelago, the differences in species diversity and size structure of the catch reveals various exploitation patterns. In most areas, a depletion is observed for the most vulnerable snapper and grouper species, and most other species are mainly exploited in their juvenile phase; clear signs of an intensification process are apparent in one of the areas. The comparison of the relative production in the Bay Islands with other reef fisheries in the Caribbean suggests that higher values may be related to moderate fishing pressure and appropriate combinations of fishing effort and selectivity. This example shows how fisheries strictly targeting a high quality resource with selective fishing techniques can be quite productive even at high levels of effort, but also that they are progressively lead to broaden their species range (sooner or later at the expense of the most vulnerable, often large-sized, species) while increasingly using less selective gears.
Fisheries Research (0165-7836) (Elsevier), 2005-06 , Vol. 73 , N. 1-2 , P. 159-169

Droits : 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2005/publication-512.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.fishres.2004.12.008
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/512/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
The active selection of recent volcanic habitats by juvenile fish following a cyclone could explain the unusual mass-settlement of the Indian Ocean blacktip grouper Epinephelus oceanicus observed on 25 May 2006, few weeks after tropical storm Diwa on the latest lava flows of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano at Reunion Island. Following a cyclonic depression, shallow underwater habitats are devoid of resident fishes, including predators, favouring juvenile fish survival. Otherwise, the recent origin of the volcanic habitats, which vary in age, could facilitate the spatial segregation of adult and juvenile fish on the lava flows, reducing intraspecific competition and adult aggression toward juveniles. Regional characteristics of larval recruitment could also contribute to the infrequency of the described event; the isolated situation of the island would be expected to result in an average density of fish postlarvae 0.25 % to 1 % of that seen on some reefs in the Pacific. The supposed origin of juvenile groupers in the neighbouring island of Mauritius should encourage Reunionese managers to look beyond their own jurisdictions to adopt a collaborative approach to conservation of the entire connected network.
Environmental Biology of Fishes

hal-01306707
http://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-01306707
http://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-01306707/document
http://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-01306707/file/Mass-settlement%20of%20the%20Indian%20ocean%20black-tip%20grouper_hal.pdf
DOI : 10.1007/s10641-014-0303-2

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Periodically harvested closures (PHCs) are small fisheries closures with objectives such as sustaining fisheriesand conserving biodiversity and have become one of the most common forms of nearshore marine managementin the Western Pacific. Although PHCs can provide both short-termconservation and fisheries benefits, their potentialas a long-term management strategy remains unclear. Through empirical assessment of a single harvestevent in each of five PHCs, we determined whether targeted fishes that differ in their vulnerability to fishing recoveredto pre-harvest conditions (the state prior to last harvest) and demonstrated post-harvest recovery benefitsafter 1 year of re-closure. For low and moderately vulnerable species, two PHCs provided significant preharvestbenefits and one provided significant post-harvest recovery benefits, suggesting a contribution to longer-term sustainability. PHCs with a combination of high compliance and longer closing times are more likelyto provide fisheries benefits and recover from harvest events, however, no benefits were observed across anyPHCs for highly vulnerable species. We recommend PHCs have longer closure periods before being harvestedand species that are highly vulnerable to fishing (e.g. large species of; grouper,wrasse and parrotfish) are avoidedduring harvests to avoid overexploitation and increase the sustainability of small-scale fisheries.
ISSN: 0006-3207

hal-01381316
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01381316
DOI : 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.08.038

Éditeur(s) : Actes de colloques Ifremer, Tahiti, French Polynesia, 20 Feb - 4 Mar 1989, n°9, chap. 44, pp.485
Résumé : Centropomidae and Serranidae, sometimes collectively misnamed "sea basses", are suitable for aquaculture in pens, ponds, and raceways around the tropical and subtropical latitudes of the world. Western Atlantic Ocean species were recently considered for farming. South Florida, Mexico, Central and South America and the Antilles areas of the Caribbean Basin have extensive areas suitable for farming groupers and snook. Principal species of interest are the common snook (Centropomus undecimalis ), the fat snook (C. parallelus ), the Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus ), Black seabass (Centropristis striatus ), Gag (Mycteroperca microlepis ), and jewfish (E. itajara ).

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/1989/acte-1477.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/1477/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD EDP Sciences
Résumé : International audience
This study determined the movements of a Giant Grouper, Epinephelus lanceolatus, in which an acoustictag was surgically implanted and monitored by an array of six VR2W acoustic receiver units from August 2010 toJanuary 2013 in the remote, uninhabited Chesterfield Islands, Coral Sea (800 km West of New Caledonia). Our datarevealed a home reef area (residency rate of 44.9%) with an increased activity revealed by movements at dawn anddusk toward and between two adjacent reef passages, probably for foraging. The fish was absent from its residentreef between October and December 2010 and 2012, corresponding to the time known for spawning aggregationsof this species in New Caledonia. A skipped spawning seems to have occurred in 2011. We hope these data will becomplemented in the future by locating the spawning site or sites and thus provide adequate conservation measures.The Coral Sea links two World Heritage Sites, the Australian Great Barrier Reefs and the New Caledonian coral reefs.It would be fitting to create a Marine Protected Area for the Chesterfield Islands between these two major conservationareas of the sea.
ISSN: 0990-7440

hal-01238809
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01238809
DOI : 10.1051/alr/2015006

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : International audience
Well-designed and effectively managed networks of marine reserves can be effective tools for both fisheries management and biodiversity conservation. Connectivity, the demographic linking of local populations through the dispersal of individuals as larvae, juveniles or adults, is a key ecological factor to consider in marine reserve design, since it has important implications for the persistence of metapopulations and their recovery from disturbance. For marine reserves to protect biodiversity and enhance populations of species in fished areas, they must be able to sustain focal species (particularly fishery species) within their boundaries, and be spaced such that they can function as mutually replenishing networks whilst providing recruitment subsidies to fished areas. Thus the configuration (size, spacing and location) of individual reserves within a network should be informed by larval dispersal and movement patterns of the species for which protection is required. In the past, empirical data regarding larval dispersal and movement patterns of adults and juveniles of many tropical marine species have been unavailable or inaccessible to practitioners responsible for marine reserve design. Recent empirical studies using new technologies have also provided fresh insights into movement patterns of many species and redefined our understanding of connectivity among populations through larval dispersal. Our review of movement patterns of 34 families (210 species) of coral reef fishes demonstrates that movement patterns (home ranges, ontogenetic shifts and spawning migrations) vary among and within species, and are influenced by a range of factors (e.g. size, sex, behaviour, density, habitat characteristics, season, tide and time of day). Some species move <0.1–0.5 km (e.g. damselfishes, butterflyfishes and angelfishes), <0.5–3 km (e.g. most parrotfishes, goatfishes and surgeonfishes) or 3–10 km (e.g. large parrotfishes and wrasses), while others move tens to hundreds (e.g. some groupers, emperors, snappers and jacks) or thousands of kilometres (e.g. some sharks and tuna). Larval dispersal distances tend to be <5–15 km, and self-recruitment is common. Synthesising this information allows us, for the first time, to provide species, specific advice on the size, spacing and location of marine reserves in tropical marine ecosystems to maximise benefits for conservation and fisheries management for a range of taxa. We recommend that: (i) marine reserves should be more than twice the size of the home range of focal species (in all directions), thus marine reserves of various sizes will be required depending on which species require protection, how far they move, and if other effective protection is in place outside reserves; (ii) reserve spacing should be <15 km, with smaller reserves spaced more closely; and (iii) marine reserves should include habitats that are critical to the life history of focal species (e.g. home ranges, nursery grounds, migration corridors and spawning aggregations), and be located to accommodate movement patterns among these. We also provide practical advice for practitioners on how to use this information to design, evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of marine reserve networks within broader ecological, socioeconomic and management contexts.
ISSN: 1464-7931

Droits : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/
hal-01334353
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01334353
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01334353/document
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01334353/file/Green_et_al-2015-Biological_Reviews.pdf
DOI : 10.1111/brv.12155