Long‐lived Reef Fishes: The Grouper‐Snapper Complex

The American Fisheries Society (AFS) recognizes that reef fishes must be conservatively managed to avoid rapid overfishing and stock collapse because reef fish communities comprise slow-growing, late maturing fishes such as groupers and snappers. Therefore, the Society recommends that for such species, fishing mortality should be maintained at or near natural mortality. In addition, AFS cautions that an imbalance in the normal sex ratio may occur rapidly during harvesting of many reef fishes, thus leading to stock collapse because many reef fish species mature first as female but then become male later in life; most of the older, larger individuals in the population are male. Thus, conventional management modeling tools such as Spawner Biomass Per Recruit may lead to overly optimistic conclusions and should be used with caution. Many reef fish species form predictable, localized, seasonal spawning aggregations that are very vulnerable to overharvesting. Such aggregations should be protected. The AFS supports the establishment of networks of large Marine Protected Areas and the development of individual transferable quotas, along with more conventional management measures to help maintain and restore reef fish populations and their habitats. The AFS encourages its members to become involved by providing technical information needed for protection of long-lived reef fishes to international, federal, state, and provincial policy makers so decisions are made on a scientific, rather than emotional or political, basis.