Kajikia Albida) and Roundscale Spearfish (Tetrapturus Georgii
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W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2014 Seasonal Movements, Habitat Utilization, and Comparative Scale Morphology of White Marlin (Kajikia albida) and Roundscale Spearfish (Tetrapturus georgii) Emily L. Loose College of William and Mary - Virginia Institute of Marine Science Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons, and the Marine Biology Commons Recommended Citation Loose, Emily L., "Seasonal Movements, Habitat Utilization, and Comparative Scale Morphology of White Marlin (Kajikia albida) and Roundscale Spearfish (Tetrapturus georgii)" (2014). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539617949. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25773/v5-6ym6-hv26 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Seasonal movements, habitat utilization, and comparative scale morphology of white marlin (Kajikia albida) and roundscale spearfish (Tetrapturus georgii) A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the School of Marine Science The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science By Emily L. Loose 2014 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of M aster o f Science Emily Loose Approved, by the Committee, August 2014 ^ \ jo h n E. Graves, Ph.D. ^gpnmittee Chairman/Advisor Richard W. Brill, Ph.D. John M. Brubaker, Ph.D. Eric J. Hilton, Ph.D. DEDICATION To my mother, Linda Malee Loose (1947-2011), who wholeheartedly supported me in every adventure I have ever chosen, from traveling alone in remote corners of the globe to embarking on the journey through graduate school. Although my mom was very proud to see me start at VIMS, she was unable to see the completion of my journey here, and I dedicate this thesis to her memory. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..........................................................................................................vi LIST OF TABLES.................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES..................................................................... :...........................................viii ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................xi CHAPTER 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION.............................................................................. 2 White marlin biology ................................................................................................4 Fisheries .....................................................................................................................8 Management...........................................................................................................10 Stock status..............................................................................................................13 CHAPTER 2: SEASONAL MOVEMENTS AND HABITAT UTILIZATION.............................. 15 INTRODUCTION.......................... 16 MATERIALS AND METHODS...............................................................................................22 Pop-up satellite archival tags ............................................................................... 22 Relative abundance estimates and tagging ........................................................ 23 Data analyses..........................................................................................................24 RESULTS....................................................................................... 29 Relative abundance estimates ..............................................................................29 Tagging....................................................................................................................29 Seasonal movements ..............................................................................................31 Utilization of the water column ............................................................................ 39 DISCUSSION..........................................................................................................................45 Relative abundance estimates ..............................................................................45 Seasonal movements ............................................................................................. 47 Habitat utilization...................................................................................................52 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK ..................................................................... 60 TABLES AND FIGURES CHAPTER 2..................................................................................... 63 CHAPTER 3: COMPARATIVE SCALE MORPHOLOGY...................................................... 103 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................104 MATERIALS AND METHODS.............................................................................................107 RESULTS..............................................................................................................................110 Skin patches ...........................................................................................................110 Squamation patterns........................................................................................... 112 Individual scales ....................................................................................................114 Morphological descriptions by region ................................................................115 White marlin individual scales by region ........................................................... 116 Roundscale spearfish individual scales by region ............................................. 120 DISCUSSION........................................................................................................................126 Between species comparison .............................................................................. 129 Denticular plates................................................................................................... 132 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK............................................................................... 136 TABLES AND FIGURES CHAPTER 3...................................................................................140 LITERATURE CITED.............................................................................................................157 APPENDIX............................................................................................................................168 VITA..................................................................................................................................... 169 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor, Dr. John Graves, who has supported me and my research, especially when my project hit a few bumps along the way. John, I greatly appreciated your lightning-fast turn-around on edits, your dedication to your students, the way your door was always open to us, and the camaraderie you inspired in the lab. Thanks to Dr. Eric Hilton for his enthusiasm and interest in my scale project, and for generously allowing me to use his lab. Although I never expected to find myself with a morphology project, Eric's sage advice and calming presence always insured that I left his office much more excited about my scale project than when I entered. To my other com m ittee members, Drs. Rich Brill, John Brubaker, and Andrij Horodysky, I extend my thanks for your ideas and input throughout this project. Funding sources helped to finance my work along the way. Thanks to the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation and the International W om en's Fishing Association. I am very appreciative of all the fishermen who allowed me to ride along on their boats, including the owners, captains, and crews of the Delta Dawn, Viking 70, Waterman, South Jersey Champion, and the Healthy Grin. Special thanks to Pete Manuel of the Delta Dawn, who always welcomed me onboard, and made it his personal mission to help me get my tags out. Also special thanks to Pat Healy, Ryan Higgins, and Brian Comber. Although I didn't tag many fish from the Viking 7 0 ,1 greatly enjoyed my time with all of you, and loved hearing your theories on marlin and fishing. Thanks to the Motsko Family of the White Marlin Open, and the Weber Family of the Mid-Atlantic $500,000 for allowing me to take scale samples at your tournaments. I owe a great debt to friends at VIMS and beyond who helped me with various challenging analyses and/or software issues. Thanks to Ben Galuardi and Tim Lam, for generously sharing their knowledge of geolocation analyses, and to Brett Falterman for additional help along the way. Ben Marcek generously assisted me with various coding issues, and just as importantly, always had a bottle opener handy when I needed it. Josh Stone taught me enough ArcGIS to be dangerous, and always came to the rescue when I got myself into trouble.