Brown-marbled ( fuscoguttatus)

Regional Status

Palau Epinephelus fuscoguttatus is one of the most important species in Palau fishery (Heemstra and Randall 1993). It is caught by hook and line, traps, spears, gillnets, traps, trawls, hook and line, speargun (Heemstra and Randall, 1993). At least five grouper spawning aggregations have disappeared since the 1970s in Palau according to Noah Idechong (formerly Palau Conservation Society), maybe due to overfishing: one mostly of E. polyphekadion and E. fuscoguttatus lost in the 1990s, and one mostly of areolatus and E. fuscoguttatus virtually eliminated at Denges channel in the late 1980s by a live grouper export fishing enterprise; P. areolatus, E. polyphekadion and E .fuscoguttatus used to aggregate on either side of Ebiil, but only a few did on the northern side (Johannes et al. 1999).

Fiji This species aggregates with one or two other grouper species at a number of spawning sites at the north and west of Fiji.

Indonesia E. fuscoguttatus is known to aggregate to seasonally in areas of the Komodo National Park (J. Pet pers. comm.).

Australia Not targeted by commercial fishers in Australia and only appears occasionally in the Sydney Fish Markets as an incidental catch. It has been assessed in Australia using IUCN Red List Criteria as Least Concern. There are currently size restrictions on this species in Queensland waters (Australia Environment pers. comm. 2003).

Maldives Heavily targeted and overfished (Sluka 1997).

New Caledonia E. fuscoguttatus is usually not kept by fishermen because too often ciguatoxic (M. Kulbicki pers. comm. 2003).

THE IUCN RED LIST OF THREATENED SPECIES™

American Samoa Extensive visual census of transects throughout American Samoa in 2002 recorded no E. fuscoguttatus (R. Schroeder, Coral Reef Ecosystem Investigation, pers. comm.).

Malaysia Fry are collected mainly from the wild for cage culture in Peninsular Malaysia. Fry were grown from naturally spawned eggs (Hussin et al. 1996) but mortality is high.

Philippines Juveniles are sometimes caught inshore and then grown-out in floating cages to attain market size (APEC 2000).

Trade Statistics Juveniles are sold in Hong Kong reef fish food market, the most common at 25–50 cm length (Lee and Sadovy 1998). Imports of the species to Hong Kong were 1,729 tonnes in 1997, and major source countries of live fish were Indonesia and the Philippines. A survey of the imports of 39 of the 114 companies that trade live fish in Hong Kong by Lau and Parry-Jones (1999), revealed that E. fuscoguttatus made up 7% (approx 1,730 t) of the total annual import volume (by weight) of fish imported into Hong Kong in 1997 with fish coming from both wild-caught individuals as well as those that are produced by hatcheries. Maturity size range is 41–45 cm TL, while common consuming size is 33.57–47.78, 70.35–118.26 cm TL (Lau and Parry-Jones 1999).

Table 1: Imports of live fish into Hong Kong between 1999 and 2003 with source countries. 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Country Total (kg) Total (kg) Total (kg) Total (kg) Total (kg) Cambodia 0 0 Taiwan 3,401 3,184 5,446 0 2,000 Indonesia 7,150 11,417 11,378 26,746 6,163 Philippines 35,259 42,183 28,136 47,855 2,624 Thailand 720 357 469 0 55 Japan 0 0 Myanmar 0 0 Mainland China 0 0 Viet Nam 8,000 0 0 600 Maldives 500 9,500 44,000 20,000 5,000 Hong Kong SAR 0 0 Brunei 0 0 Sri Lanka 0 0 India 0 0 Malaysia 2,068 2,322 5,801 21,086 15,524 Singapore 1,929 0 Bangladesh 0 0 Togo 0 0 South Africa 0 0 Seychelles 5,000 0 0 0 Marshall Islands 6,080 0 Kiribati 0 0 Palau 0 0 Australia 0 0

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1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Country Total (kg) Total (kg) Total (kg) Total (kg) Total (kg) Solomon Islands 0 0 Fiji 0 0 Papua New Guinea 0 0 TOTAL (kg) 60,098 81,963 95,230 123,696 31,966

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