Technical and Engineering Support Alliance, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Panama City, Florida, United States of America.
School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2023 Dec 27;18(12):e0295650. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295650. eCollection 2023.
Reef fishes have been utilized as food fish throughout the U.S. Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico waters for centuries, with increasing fishing effort in recent decades. As a result, many species have experienced declines in landings, including deepwater snappers such as queen snapper Etelis oculatus and blackfin snapper Lutjanus buccanella. However, little to no peer-reviewed published research exists on basic life history parameters for either species. Confirming the accuracy of an age estimation method for a fish species is essential for ensuring sustainable fisheries management. This is because in the assessment of fisheries species population age-based parameters, including longevity, age at sexual maturity, growth rate, mortality, age-specific reproductive output, and lifetime reproductive output, are important in understanding overall life history strategies of managed stocks. The past stock assessment on U.S. Caribbean queen snapper utilized an estimated longevity of 8 y, derived from length frequencies for fish from St. Lucia. Blackfin snapper has an estimated longevity of 27 y based on a relatively small study from offshore waters of the southeastern U.S. The focus of our investigation was to estimate maximum longevity of two data-poor species in the U.S. Caribbean. The accuracy of ageing methods was tested via bomb radiocarbon age estimation validation and effects of depth on Δ14C in otolith cores and eye lens core values were examined. Results from our work indicate a maximum validated age of 45 y for queen snapper, and 43 y for blackfin snapper. Our findings indicate queen snapper and blackfin snapper are long-lived (> 40 y). The resulting Δ14C comparison between eye lens cores and otolith cores has important implications for the study of age validation, specifically when deepwater species are involved.
几百年来，礁鱼一直被用作美国加勒比海和墨西哥湾水域的食用鱼，近几十年来捕捞力度不断加大。因此，许多物种的捕捞量都有所下降，包括深水笛鲷，如皇后笛鲷 Etelis oculatus 和黑鳍笛鲷 Lutjanus buccanella。然而，对于这两个物种的基本生活史参数，几乎没有经过同行评审的研究发表。确认鱼类年龄估测方法的准确性对于确保可持续渔业管理至关重要。这是因为在评估渔业种群的年龄参数时，包括寿命、性成熟年龄、生长率、死亡率、年龄特异性生殖输出和终生生殖输出等，对于理解管理种群的总体生活史策略非常重要。过去对美国加勒比皇后笛鲷的种群评估利用了从圣卢西亚鱼类的长度频率得出的 8 年估计寿命。根据美国东南部外海的一项相对较小的研究，黑鳍笛鲷的估计寿命为 27 年。我们的研究重点是估计美国加勒比地区两个数据匮乏的物种的最大寿命。通过炸弹放射性碳年龄估计验证来测试年龄测定方法的准确性，并研究了深度对耳石核和眼晶状体核值中 Δ14C 的影响。我们的研究结果表明，皇后笛鲷的最大验证年龄为 45 岁，黑鳍笛鲷的最大验证年龄为 43 岁。我们的发现表明，皇后笛鲷和黑鳍笛鲷是长寿的 (> 40 岁)。眼晶状体核和耳石核之间的 Δ14C 比较对年龄验证研究具有重要意义，特别是当涉及深水物种时。
