Ecology and management of the invasive lionfish Pterois volitans/miles complex (Perciformes: Scorpaenidae) in Southern Costa Rica
Ecología y manejo del pez león Pterois volitans/miles complex (Perciformes: Scorpaenidae) en el Caribe sur de Costa Rica
Vera Sandel1*, Damián Martínez-Fernández2*, Daniel Wangpraseurt3* & Luis Sierra4*
Abstract
Invasive species alter ]]>
Pterois volitans [Linnaeus, 1758] / miles[Bennet, 1882] complex) is the first non-native marine fish that has established itself in the ]]>
Las especies invasoras alteran la ]]>
Pterois volitans [Linnaeus, 1758]/ miles[Bennet, 1882] ]]>
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Palabras clave: especies invasoras, pez león (Pterois volitans / milescomplex), dieta, densidad, manejo, Costa Rica.
Invasive species pose a threat to ecosystem integrity and functioning. They account for nearly 40% of all animal extinctions and are thus considered one of the greatest drivers of biodiversity loss on a global scale (Hassan, Scholes, & Ash, ]]>
Pterois volitans/milescomplex) as an important invasive species (Luque et al., 2014).
The Indopacific lionfish (P. volitans/milescomplex) was the first marine fish to become established and to convert into one of the key invasive species in the Western Atlantic. It was first reported in Florida in the 1980s and then spread across the entire Caribbean region, including Mexico, Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico, Belize, Honduras, Colombia and Venezuela (Betancur-R. et al., 2011; Schofield, 2010). This rapid invasion was facilitated by several biological characteristics of the species, including great reproductive potential, wide larval and egg dispersal, a generalist ]]>
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In 2012, The Regional Lionfish Committee launched the Regional Strategy for the Control of Invasive Lionfish in the Wider Caribbean. This document is directed towards the government and other stakeholders and aims at: a)facilitating collaboration among stakeholders, b)encouraging research and monitoring, c)encouraging new regulations and policies, iv)controlling lionfish populations, and e)providing education, information and outreach mechanisms (Gómez Lozano et al., 2013). ]]>
In Costa Rica, the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) developed a strategy to achieve a medium-term action plan in order to educate stakeholders and to monitor and control the lionfish population in the Caribbean in 2010. Although workshops and outreach programs are occasionally conducted, there is no active coordination within the various government institutions and lionfish control is thus poorly implemented. As part of the SINAC’s proposed research strategy, biological and ecological aspects of the ]]>
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Materials and Methods
Study site: Lionfish populations were studied along the Southern Caribbean of Costa Rica, where the coastline exhibits areas with fringing and patchy reefs. A total of ]]>
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The NPC is about 22 400ha in size, of which about 600ha are composed of coral reef substrate (SINAC, 2013). The fringing reefs of NPC consist of three ridges; one prominent ridge along the Cahuita Point with a length of 5km, and two minor ridges at each of its sides. In the lagoon, there are various patches of reef, seaweed and calcareous structures (Cortés et al., 2010a). The area between Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo presents coral reef patches that are severely degraded due to high levels of ]]>
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Fish sampling and analysis: Fish for biometric and dietary analysis were caught with a polespear. Total length (cm) and wet weight (g) were measured from 327 lionfish obtained from the four sites, 46 fish obtained at two additional shallow water sites (Punta Uva and Coccles), as well as from a sample of 85 fish captured with weir traps at a depth of 80-90m, provided by local fishermen from Manzanillo. Stomach content was analyzed for the 373 ]]>
a•(Na+Wa), for a particular family a. We used the gravimetrical (W) instead of the volumetric (V) percentage values for its calculation because it is easier to use in the field and its accuracy is comparable.
Visual transect ]]>
2 were completed. Lionfish density per transect was calculated and overall abundance was then obtained as the ]]>
Statistical analysis was performed with R (Studio version 0.97.332). To test for significant differences (at an α level of 0.05) in fish length between the different sampling locations a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out followed by Bonferroni post-hoc testing. A non-parametric Kruskal ]]>
a•Lb, where W is the wet weight (in g), and L is the total length (in cm). The constants a and b were estimated via nonlinear regression and are based on the total of 485 lionfish caught along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
Results
Dietary analysis: From the total of 373 of fish caught in the shallow waters only 298 lionfish were used for stomach content analysis, because approximately 19% of fish presented empty stomachs and 1% lost their stomach during the capturing process. A total of 13 families of teleosts were found and eleven ]]>
Table 1). In three particular cases two species of seaweed and one species of green algae were detected. Teleost fish dominated the lionfish diet in percent frequency (71.1%) and percent weight (84.8%), whereas crustaceans exceeded fish contribution in percent number (58.3%). The last finding was related to a very high number of juvenile crustaceans (418 individuals) that were found in the stomachs of eight lionfish. Following the IRI, the most important teleost families in Costa Rican lionfish diet were Pomacentridae, Acanthuridae, Blennidae, ]]>
Biometry: Of the four shallow sites, lionfish caught in Perezoso were the smallest in length, followed by Puerto Vargas, Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo harbouring the largest fishes (Fig. 1). Lionfish from deeper ]]>
-2 and b=2.81 (
Fig. 2).
Lionfish density: Lionfish density was highest in Manzanillo (162±218fish/ha), followed by Puerto Viejo (81±80fish/ha), Puerto Vargas (70±93 fish/ha) and Perezoso (62±99) (Fig. 3). The mean density calculated for the Southern Caribbean of Costa Rica was 92±130fish/ha. Differences between sites reached up to 100 fish, but statistical analysis revealed no significant differences (KW, χ2=1.48, p=0.84).
Discussion
Teleosts dominated ]]>
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We found lionfish at all study sites along the Southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Mean density was 3.6 times higher than lionfish density reported from its native range in Kenya (25.1 fish/ha; Darling, Green, O´Leary, & Côté, 2011). Although, we conducted a thorough lionfish-focused search, i.e. focusing on cryptic habitats, lionfish densities reported here have to be considered conservative estimates, given that visual surveys generally tend to underestimate the density ]]>
While the first lionfish in Costa Rica were sighted by the end of 2008, its dispersion to deeper waters has not been reported until February 2011, when local fishermen started capturing the invasive fish in weir traps installed at depth of about 80-90m (H. McDonald, personal communication, August 2011). According to ]]>
Due to the severity ]]>
A local inter-institutional strategy should be developed in collaboration with stakeholders from the environmental and the fisheries sector, from universities and local communities. The framework for management and control in the country should focus on several main aspects: a) identify potential key areas for lionfish control based on their ecological and socio-economic value, accessibility and degree of infestation b) coordinate lionfish ]]>
Acknowledgments
Thanks to all the staff of Parque Nacional Cahuita for the extraordinary logistical and spiritual support. Thanks to Rigoberto Víquez for supervising and guiding ]]>
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1. Programa de Maestría en Ciencias Marinas y Costeras de la Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, Avenida 2, Puntarenas, Costa Rica; vera_1104@gmx.de
2. Consolidating Costa Rica’s Marine Protected Areas Project SINAC-PNUD-GEF, 1735-1002 San José, Costa Rica; damian.martinez@sinac.go.cr
3. Plant Functional Biology and Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, 15 Broadway, Ultimo NSW 2007, Australia; daniel.wangpraseurt@uts.edu.au
4. Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, Avenida 1, Calle 9, Heredia, Costa Rica; luis.sierra.sierra@una.cr ]]>
Received 03-VI-2014. Corrected 30-IX-2014. Accepted 28-X-2014. ]]>2011655e196662004429827-8332011381281-1293198232269-2762010581-2220105833-50201316450-612014506243-2532011132045-2051201220185-191Fundación Trichechus201320132012733e32596200928107200519942651547-1551200717360-365198017411-429201416981-9852011938-4320092221-3020121200986389-39820092011421-26200919711525-101993100167-17620141-920045261-7520094473-47920105^s1^s11S117-S1222006SINAC20132000197259-27220032011964-692007953-64