Browsing by Author "Rhodes, Kevin L."
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- Fake spawns and floating particles : a rebuttal of Karkarey et al. "Alternative reproductive tactics and inverse size-assortment in a high-density fish spawning aggregation"Publication . Erisman, Brad E.; Barreiros, João P.; Rhodes, Kevin L.; Warner, Robert R.Courtship and spawning behaviors of coral reef fishes are very complex, and sufficient sampling effort and proper methods are required to draw informed conclusions on their mating systems that are grounded in contemporary theories of mate choice and sexual selection. We reviewed the recent study by Karkarey et al. (BMC Ecol 17:10, 2017) on the spawning behavior of Squaretail coralgrouper (Plectropomus areolatus) from India and found no evidence to support their findings of alternative reproductive tactics, unique school-spawning involving a single male with multiple females, or inverse size-assortment. The study lacks scientific credibility due to a lack of rigor in the methodology used, misinterpretation of observed behaviors, misinterpretation of the literature, and insufficient data. Their approach led the authors to produce spurious results and profound, invalid conclusions that violate the most basic assumptions of mate choice and sexual selection theory as applied to mating systems in marine fishes.
- Valuable but vulnerable : Over-fishing and under-management continue to threaten groupers so what now?Publication . Mitcheson, Yvonne Sadovy de; Linardich, Christi; Barreiros, João P.; Ralph, Gina M.; Aguilar-Perera, Alfonso; Afonso, Pedro; Erisman, Brad E.; Pollard, David A.; Fennessy, Sean T.; Bertoncini, Áthila A.; Nair, Rekha J.; Rhodes, Kevin L.; Francour, Patrice; Brulé, Thierry; Samoilys, Melita A.; Ferreira, Beatrice P.; Craig, MatthewAmong threats to marine species, overfishing has often been highlighted as a major contributor to population declines and yet fishing effort has increased globally over the past decade. This paper discusses the decadal reassessment of groupers (family Epinephelidae), an important and valuable group of marine fishes subjected to high market demand and intense fishing effort, based on IUCN criteria. Allowing for uncertainty in the status of species listed as Data Deficient, 19 species (11.4%) are currently assigned to a “threatened” category. This first reassessment for a large marine fish taxon permits an evaluation of changes following the original assessments, provides a profile of the current conservation condition of species, identifies the challenges of assessing conservation status, and highlights current and emerging threats. Measures needed to reduce threats and lessons learned from conservation efforts are highlighted. Present threats include intensifying fishing effort in the face of absent or insufficient fishery management or monitoring, growing pressures from international trade, and an inadequate coverage in effectively managed, sized, or located protected areas. Emerging threats involve expansion of fishing effort into deeper waters and more remote locations, shifts to previously non-targeted species, increases in the capture, marketing and use of juveniles, growing demands for domestic and international trade, and, potentially, climate change. Those species most threatened are larger-bodied, longer-lived groupers, most of which reproduce in spawning aggregations.