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Growth and maturation of three commercially important coral reef species from American Samoa

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  • Fisheries
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Abstract

This study presents age-based life history information on three small-bodied species targeted in the American Samoan fishery: Chlorurus japanensis palecheek parrotfish/fuga-alosama, Lethrinus rubrioperculatus spotcheek emperor/fiola pa`o`omumu, and Naso lituratus orangespine unicornfish/ili`ilia. Age and reproductive information were derived from sagittal otoliths and gonads. Maximum observed ages were 7 years for C. japanensis, 10 years for L. rubrioperculatus, and 25 years for N. lituratus. Due to a limited numbers of immature samples, a proxy for size at 50% maturity (L50) was derived from the relationship between asymptotic fork length (L∞) and L50 based on data published for species from similar geographic regions and respective families. L50 was estimated at 20.9 cm for C. japanensis, 20.4 cm for L. rubrioperculatus, and 17.5 cm for N. lituratus. Derived estimates were within 1 % of the L50 calculated for C. japanensis and N. lituratus from the limited number of immature samples collected in this study, indicating that for regions where sampling ability is limited, derived relationships between L∞ and L50 can be used to calculate an appropriate proxy. Naso lituratus demonstrated a biphasic mortality schedule with a higher than expected total mortality rate in the first 7 years of life. The age-based demographic information presented here can be used for future stock assessments and ecosystem models, which should facilitate improved management.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the team at DMWR in American Samoa for collecting and processing the fish samples in a short amount of time, and Dr. Eva Schemmel for additional assistance on gonad histology staging. This project was made possible by support from the Nature Conservancy under cooperative agreement award no. NA16NOS4820106 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP), US Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations reported in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA, NOAA CRCP, or the US Department of Commerce. All the experiments complied with the current laws of American Samoa and the United States of America. We thank the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Poseidon Fisheries Research, 62 Laumaewa Loop, Kihei, Kaneohe, HI, 96753, USA

    Cassandra Pardee

  2. Pacific Otolith Services, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Brett M. Taylor

  3. Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources, Pago Pago, AS, USA

    Sean Felise & Domingo Ochavillo

  4. The Nature Conservancy Micronesia Program, Koror, Palau

    Javier Cuetos-Bueno

Authors
  1. Cassandra Pardee
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  2. Brett M. Taylor
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  3. Sean Felise
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  4. Domingo Ochavillo
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  5. Javier Cuetos-Bueno
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Contributions

All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data generation was performed by D. O. and S. F. Material preparation and analysis were performed by C. P. and B. T. The first draft of the manuscript was written by C. P., and all the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Cassandra Pardee.

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Pardee, C., Taylor, B.M., Felise, S. et al. Growth and maturation of three commercially important coral reef species from American Samoa. Fish Sci 86, 985–993 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-020-01471-9

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