The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: an assessment of coral reef fishes in the US Pacific Islands

Abstract

Widespread declines among many coral reef fisheries have led scientists and managers to become increasingly concerned over the extinction risk facing some species. To aid in assessing the extinction risks facing coral reef fishes, large-scale censuses of the abundance and distribution of individual species are critically important. We use fisheries-independent data collected as part of the NOAA Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program from 2000 to 2009 to describe the range and density across the US Pacific of coral reef fishes included on The International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) 2011 Red List of Threatened Species. Forty-five species, including sharks, rays, groupers, humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus), and bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum), included on the IUCN List, were recorded in the US Pacific Islands. Most species were generally rare in the US Pacific with the exception of a few species, principally small groupers and reef sharks. The greatest diversity and densities of IUCN-listed fishes were recorded at remote and uninhabited islands of the Pacific Remote Island Areas; in general, lower densities were observed at reefs of inhabited islands. Our findings complement IUCN assessment efforts, emphasize the efficacy of large-scale assessment and monitoring efforts in providing quantitative data on reef fish assemblages, and highlight the importance of protecting populations at remote and uninhabited islands where some species included on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species can be observed in abundance.

Double Jeopardy and Global Extinction Risk in Corals and Reef Fishes

“…In a second risk assessment, only 16% of corals (i.e., seven species) in the depauperate and extremely isolated tropical Eastern Pacific were considered to fall into the same extinction risk categories, despite their isolation, proportionately high levels of endemism, small population sizes, and vulnerability to volatile El Niñ o events [25]. In a third assessment, only 1.7% of parrotfishes and surgeonfishes (three species) were assessed as having an elevated risk of global extinction using IUCN criteria [32], even though many species in these two taxonomic groups are subject to heavy fishing pressure over much of their geographic range [33], resulting in reductions in population size that are likely to be comparable to the decline in many vulnerable coral species. Thus, the accuracy of global and regional threat assessments of coral reef species, and their consistency across regions and major reef taxa, is currently unclear.…”

Umbrella species in marine systems: using the endangered humphead wrasse to conserve coral reefs

“…Palmyra is one of the few remaining parts of the world with healthy populations of humphead wrasse (Zgliczynski et al 2013). Palmyra Atoll provided an ideal field site to test hypotheses about home-range size in large coral reef fishes due to the combination of a large-scale reef and the bordering oceanic waters that prevent emigration to other reefs.…”

Spawning aggregation behavior and reproductive ecology of the giant bumphead parrotfish,Bolbometopon muricatum, in a remote marine reserve

“…Because of its remote location and its control by DOD, commercial fishing in waters surrounding Wake Atoll has been excluded and all recreational fishing for Bolbometopon is prohibited. As such, populations can be considered pristine (island-wide mean of 2.97 ± 0.96 SE individuals per ha, Lobel & Lobel, 2004 ; Zgliczynski et al, 2013 ).…”