Abstract
Growth rate, longevity, and maturity were estimated for four commonly targeted species of surgeonfish in Hawai‘i: ringtail surgeonfish/pualu Acanthurus blochii, eyestripe surgeonfish/palani Acanthurus dussumieri, orange-band surgeonfish/na‘ena‘e Acanthurus olivaceus, and yellowfin surgeonfish/pualu Acanthurus xanthopterus. All species demonstrated rapid growth with long life spans. The maximum observed ages were 26 years for A. blochii, 30 years for A. dussumieri, 14 years for A. olivaceus, and 29 years for A. xanthopterus. Females reached maturity at a greater size and age for all four species. All species reached maturity within the first 3 years of life and approximately 59–67% of maximum size. All four surgeonfish species demonstrated a biphasic mortality schedule with a higher total mortality rate occurring earlier part of life. This study provides a comprehensive study of the age, growth, and maturity for four large-bodied surgeonfish species which are commonly targeted throughout Hawai‘i and the rest of the Indo-Pacific.
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The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
Mahalo to the local O‘ahu fish markets who allowed us to sample their catch for a year. Mahalo to all the fishers on O‘ahu and Maui who donated fish to this study; without your support, we would not have gotten the smaller immature sample sizes. Thanks to Brett Taylor for confirming otolith ages on older specimens. Thanks to the anonymous reviewers whose comments and edits made this a better manuscript.
Funding
Funding for this project was provided by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council through its cooperative agreement with the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (Award No. NA17NMF4410251).
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Conceptualization: C. Pardee and J. Wiley; methodology: C. Pardee, J. Wiley, T. Fendrick, J. Giglio; formal analysis: C. Pardee, E. Schemmel; writing-original draft preparation: C. Pardee and E. Schemmel; writing-review and editing: C. Pardee, E. Schemmel, J. Wiley, T. Fendrick, J. Giglio; funding acquisition: C. Pardee and J. Wiley.
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Fish were purchased from commercial vendors and recreational fishermen; no animal experiments were conducted. Therefore, no ethical approval was required.
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10641_2022_1216_MOESM2_ESM.png
Supplementary file2 S2: Photomicrographs of sagittal otolith sections for (a) Acanthurus blochii, (b) Acanthurus dussumieri, (c) Acanthurus olivaceus and (d) Acanthurus xanthopterus (PNG 4724 KB)
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Pardee, C., Wiley, J., Schemmel, E. et al. Comparative demography of four large-bodied surgeonfish. Environ Biol Fish 105, 231–245 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-022-01216-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-022-01216-w