Biología Marina

ABSTRACT: A Nassau grouper spawning aggregation formed in large numbers (eg 1000 to 15000 ind.) for more than 50 yr at the traditional aggregation site off Mahahual, Quintana Roo, Mexico (eastern Yucatan Peninsula). However, in the early 1990s the aggregation ceased forming at the site, and only small aggregations were found south of the site (1 to 2 km) moving northward along the fore reef.

Resumen. Se presenta una lista sistemática parcialmente comentada de los peces marinos del Caribe mexicano, con base en los registros de las colecciones de peces y de ictioplancton de ECOSUR y un análisis crítico de la literatura. La lista incluye 577 especies, ocho de las cuales son nuevos registros para la ittiofauna caribeña de México: Rhinobatospercellens, Myctophum affine, M.

In Puerto Rico, the environmental legislation for establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) is complex due to its current political position with the United States (US) as not only local but also federal US laws affect designations. Historically, during the Spanish rule, mangrove forests were protected for extractive reasons (ie, charcoal) and the first protected area was established by 1918 as an Insular Forest.

Abstract We recorded the first sighting and collection of the non-native, invasive Red lionfish (Pterois volitans [Linnaeus, 1758]: Scorpaenidae) in the southern Gulf of Mexico, off the northern Yucatan Peninsula. In December 2009, two individuals were sighted (one of them speared) at 38 m depth over a reef formation, about 58 km northwest of the Alacranes Reef National Park, which is located 130 km off the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. More than 20 years after the introduction of P.

ABSTRACT: Settlement dynamics of the bicolor damselfish Stegastes partitus (Pomacentridae) were determined by otolith shape and microstructure analysis and compared among different coral reef areas (Windward, Lagoon, and Leeward) of Chinchorro Bank, northern Meso-American Barrier Reef System, eastern Yucatan Peninsula.

Abstract A red lionfish, Pterois volitans (Linnaeus, 1758), was captured in the Anegada de Adentro Coral Reef (19º13′ 0.7 ″N; 96º03′ 25 ″W) off the coast of Veracruz, Mexico on January 12, 2012. The collection site is about 700 km (435 mi) from the location where the first lionfish was captured in the Southern Gulf of Mexico in late 2009. The record off the Veracruz suggests that the lionfish may be establishing a welladapted population along the Mexican coast in the Southern Gulf of Mexico.

ABSTRACT Fish spawning aggregations (FSAs) are among the most relevant ecological events in tropical, shallow waters. Many fish species migrate to build spawning aggregations at specific traditional sites in coral reefs every year, and many of these aggregations are severely exploited to the level of disappearance. In Mexico, the knowledge of such events is scarce, but efforts exist to document their characteristics.

En el Arrecife Mesoamericano, área geográfica localizada en el Caribe oeste y que comprende a México, Belice, Honduras y Guatemala, la situación del mero de Nassau E. striatus se conoce parcialmente. A la fecha no ha habido ninguna iniciativa internacional que conjunte esfuerzos para abordar aspectos fundamentales para su

ABSTRACT.—Reef fish movements over short and long time frames have important consequences for identifying essential fish habitat, quantifying ecological flows across the seascape and designing marine reserves. We use grunts (Haemulidae) as a representative model group for quantifying movement in terms of distances, time scales, temporal patterns, habitat associations and controls. Here, we provide a review based on recent studies and our own experience.

Hamlets are small, predatory coral reef groupers of the genus Hypoplectrus (Serranidae: Serraninae) that inhabit relatively shallow reef areas in the western Atlantic (Böhlke and Chaplin, 1993; Randall, 1996). They feed mostly on small benthic crustaceans like crabs, shrimps, and stomatopods, and occasionally consume small fishes and polychaetes (Randall, 1967). Hamlet distribution is mostly centered in the Caribbean (Domeier, 1994) with geographic ranges overlapping extensively (Randall, 1996).

ABSTRACT Settlement dynamics of the bicolor damselfish, Stegastes partitus (Pomacentridae), were determined by otolith shape and microstructure analysis and compared among different coral reef areas (Windward, reef Lagoon and Leeward) of Chinchorro Bank (northern Meso-American Barrier Reef System, eastern Yucatan Peninsula). Estimated age, settlement time, size at settlement, and larval otolith growth rates were compared.

An annual spawning aggregation of Nassau grouper, Epinephelus striatus, observed off the southern coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico, on full moon days in December and January, was surveyed during the winters from 1991 to 1993. A fish aggregation had been appearing at one traditional site off Mahahual for more than 80 years, but currently it forms at undetermined sites far from the original site. Fish migration was northwards in the fore reef border along the 14 m isobath and isolated groups were observed.

Abstract. The blue hamlet, Hypoplectrus gemma, is a small reef fish considered to be endemic to Florida (USA). However, we recorded the occurrence of thirteen individuals in the Alacranes Reef, a reef platform off the northern Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Key words: Hypoplectrus, Alacranes Reef, Reef Fish, Yucatan Peninsula, Gulf of Mexico

ABSTRACT: While the composition of the fish community of SW Puerto Rico has been studied extensively, little information is available on the importance of different shallow-water areas (ie back reef systems) as juvenile habitat. We investigated the extent to which 20 selected, reef-associated fish species use mangrove and seagrass as juvenile habitat in contrast to shallow-water coral reefs.

ABSTRACT.—Black hamlet (Hypoplectrus nigricans) was observed to vary in coloration and mor-phology in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Belize. H. nigricans from Puerto Rico exhibited a larger, grayish body (pectoral fins transparent), with long and pointed pelvic fins, and lunate caudal fin, while individuals from Mexico and Belize exhibited a smaller, darker body (including pectoral fins), with shorter and no pointed pelvic fins, and a truncated caudal fin. Occurrence of coloration and morphology variations of H.

The reef-associated fish genus Hypoplectrus (Serranidae), endemic to the western Atlantic Ocean, represents an ideal model to study speciation within a potentially highly dispersive (marine) ecosystem, because it consists of a complex of at least 10 morphs differentiated primarily by coloration. Although several recent studies on genetics, diet, and fertilization reveal little to no difference between the Hypoplectrus color morphs, there is still not a full understanding of what keeps these morphs distinct or drives their variation. Ecological information is needed alongside the genetic information to better understand this variation. Based on presence/absence records from scientific literature and direct observations in coral reefs, this work examined the distribution of the genus Hypoplectrus in the Greater Caribbean region. Some color morphs occurred simultaneously at given locations, but others showed geographic restrictions. Using cluster and nMDS analyses, we found three major groupings according to distribution: (i) widespread (Hypoplectrus puella, Hypoplectrus unicolor, and Hypoplectrus nigricans), (ii) less widespread (Hypoplectrus indigo, Hypoplectrus gummigutta, Hypoplectrus chlorurus, Hypoplectrus aberrans, and Hypoplectrus guttavarius), and (iii) geographically confined or segregated (Hypoplectrus gemma, Hypoplectrus providencianus). Geographic sections selected for the Greater Caribbean (eastern, western and northern) were dominated by at least three widely distributed Hypoplectrus morphs. New geographic records of some color morphs were documented and compared to previous established distribution ranges in the Greater Caribbean.