Residence time, site fidelity and movements for red snapper Lutjanus campechanus (Lutjanidae) were estimated from long-term telemetry monitoring (December 2005 to June 2010) at 6 sites (1 natural and 5 artificial reefs) in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Each site consisted of an array of 5 receivers, with 1 at the center reef site and 4 receivers placed 1100 m north, south, east and west of center (2 km radius detection area). Throughout the study, a stationary control transmitter was located 400 m south of the center receiver at each site to estimate changes in detection rates from environmental factors. These receiver arrays enabled fishery independent estimations of fishing mortality, natural mortality and emigration. Event analysis was used to estimate site fidelity and residence, based on right-censoring fishing and natural mortality. Median residence time was 542 d, ranging from 1 to 1099 d, with 72% of fish staying at least 1 yr at the site. Some fish (n = 12) showed seasonal and directed movements to other sites (up to 8 km away) and returned to original sites up to 7 mo later. Diel movements away from the structure tended to occur at night. Site fidelity and residence times of red snapper in the present study were greater than in any previous study and show the importance of artificial reefs for this species.
KEY WORDS: Site fidelity · Acoustic telemetry · Seasonal movements · Red snapper · Artificial reefs
Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 437: [183][184][185][186][187][188][189][190][191][192][193][194][195][196][197][198][199][200] 2011 residence times and movement patterns around natural and artificial structures.The residency of red snapper Lutjanus campechanus on natural and artificial structures has been examined by several methods, with varying results. Early studies examined the distribution of red snapper catches relative to habitat type, depth and season (Camber 1955, Moseley 1966, Bradley & Bryan 1975, and more recent studies have used mark-recapture (Beaumariage 1969, Fable 1980, Szedlmayer & Shipp 1994, Watterson et al. 1998, Patterson et al. 2001, Patterson & Cowan 2003, Diamond et al. 2007, Strelcheck et al. 2007) and ultrasonic telemetry (Szedlmayer 1997, Peabody 2004, Szedlmayer & Schroepfer 2005, Schroepfer & Szedlmayer 2006 to estimate site fidelity and movements. For the most part, these studies indicate red snapper show some affinity to both natural and artificial structures, but estimates of site fidelity and residence times seem to vary by methods (mark-recapture vs. telemetry), habitat type (e.g. small artificial reefs, oil-gas platforms and natural reefs), hurricanes, transmitter detection range, fish size and study length (Diamond et al. 2007, Gallaway et al. 2009).Recent mark-recapture studies of relatively small red snapper (mean: < 400 mm TL) off Alabama obtained different results even with similar methods (Patterson & Cowan 2003, Strelcheck et al. 2007. Patterson & Cowan (2003) estimated site fid...