Document Type

Abstract

Publication Date

2025

DOI

10.5343/bms.2024.0122

Publication Title

Bulletin of Marine Science

Volume

101

Issue

1

Pages

554-555

Conference Name

5th Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium, 19-23 June 2025, Nus, Singapore

Abstract

Overfishing remains a threat to coral reef fishes globally, with large carnivores often the most vulnerable. Marine protected areas (MPAs) can restore fish populations and biodiversity, but their impact has been understudied in mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs – extensions of shallow reefs from 30 to 150 m). We analyzed baited remote underwater videos recorded in 2016 to investigate the assemblage structure of large carnivorous fishes at shallow (4–12 m) and mesophotic (45–96 m) depths in two of the largest and most isolated MPAs in the Philippines: Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park (TRNP), a fully no-take MPA enacted in 1988; and Cagayancillo, an archipelagic municipality surrounded by an extensive but not fully no-take MPA declared in 2016. We focused on groupers (Serranidae), snappers (Lutjanidae), emperors (Lethrinidae), jacks (Carangidae); the endangered Cheilinus undulatus (Labridae); and sharks (Galeomorphii). Surprisingly, mean fish abundance and species richness were not greater in TRNP than Cagayancillo regardless of depth despite long-term protection. Limited impacts of fishing in Cagayancillo may largely explain this result. Differentiation of fish assemblages was evident between TRNP and Cagayancillo but more obvious between Depths at each location, probably due more to habitat than MPA effects. In Cagayancillo, overall, grouper, and jack mean abundance, and shark mean species richness, were higher at mesophotic depths, suggesting that MCEs can serve as deep refugia from fishing. The findings support the view that MPAs will be more successful if they are fully no-take, strictly enforced, older, larger, isolated from human impacts, demographically connected with other MPAs, and include MCEs.

Rights

© 2025 The Authors.

This abstract is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License.

Original Publication Citation

Abesamis, R. A., Salvador, M. L., Murray, R., Delijero, K., Conales, S. F., Utzurrum, J. T., Bird, C. E., & Gauthier, D. T. (2025). Assemblage structure of large carnivorous coral reef fishes at shallow and mesophotic depths in two of the largest and most isolated marine protected areas in the Philippines. Bulletin of Marine Science, 101(1), 554-555. https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2024.0122

ORCID

0000-0002-2301-7150 (Gauthier)

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