The Movement of Five Wrasse Species (Labridae) on the Norwegian West Coast
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The movement of five wrasse species (Labridae) on the Norwegian west coast. Nicolai Ljøstad Aasen Master Thesis Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES) Department of Biosciences Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences UNIVERSITY OF OSLO October 2019 II © Nicolai Ljøstad Aasen 2019 Title The movement of five wrasse species (Labridae) on the Norwegian west coast. Author: Nicolai Ljøstad Aasen http://www.duo.uio.no/ Print: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo III IV Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank my supervisors Asbjørn Vøllestad and Kim Halvorsen for the help you have provided me with throughout this experience. Your calm demeanor and overall positive attitude have made this project fun to work with. I would also like to thank Ylva Vik, Torkel Larsen and Benedikte Austad for your assistance and good company throughout this project. And thank you Vilde ArntZen Engdal for being there all this time. V VI Abstract During the 1980`s it was discovered that fishes from the wrasse family (Labridae) along the Norwegian coast could be utiliZed as cleaner fish for controlling sea-lice infestations in commercial fish farming. Since this discovery, the demand for wild-caught wrasse has generated a large and profitable fishery. And subsequently, knowledge regarding the biology and ecology of temperate wrasses is needed to manage a sustainable fishery. In this thesis, I analyzed movements of the five wrasse species using mark-recapture data collected over five periods in 2017 and 2018 on three islands outside Huftarøy in Austevoll municipality in western Norway. A total of 8454 wrasses were tagged, and 839 were recaptured. The five species of wrasse found at the study location; Corkwing (Crenilabrus melops), goldsinny (Ctenolabrus rupestris), ballan wrasse (Labrus bergylta), rock cook (Centrolabrus exoletus) and cuckoo wrasse (Labrus mixtus). HoriZontal movement made by individuals from these species was obtained by calculating the distance between observations. Life-history traits and environmental factors were then used in order to explain movement patterns. In this thesis, I found that the five species of wrasse moved locally with little horiZontal movement. This was reinforced by the lack of observations of movement between the three islands. Corkwing wrasse was found to have moved longer distances with larger body siZe, and the island and habitat where captured had an effect on the distance traveled. Goldsinny wrasse was found to move shorter distances than corkwing, and the island where captured influenced horiZontal movement. Factors influencing the recapture probability was found to mirror factors influencing movement, and the time of year influenced the probability of being recaptured. Local island populations of territorial fishes such as the wrasses in this study are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation and would likely struggle to recover. The movement patterns observed for corkwing make this species especially susceptible to sex-selective harvesting, which can have a negative impact on population productivity. The way fishes move is directly linked with the probability of being harvested. In order to protect small local populations of temperate wrasses, further research on wrasse movement should be carried out with different techniques such as acoustic or radio telemetry in order to get a more detailed understanding of the movement patterns of the five species of wrasse found along the Norwegian coast. VII VIII Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 2 Material and Methods ......................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Study species .............................................................................................................. 5 2.2 Study location ........................................................................................................... 10 2.2.1 Habitat classification ........................................................................................ 12 2.3 Data collection .......................................................................................................... 14 2.4 Analysis .................................................................................................................... 15 2.4.1 Measuring distance ........................................................................................... 15 2.4.2 Statistics ........................................................................................................... 16 3 Results .............................................................................................................................. 19 3.1 Overview .................................................................................................................. 19 3.2 Movement between islands ...................................................................................... 24 3.3 Interspecific differences in movement patterns ........................................................ 25 3.4 Intraspecific variation in movement patterns ........................................................... 26 3.4.1 Corkwing .......................................................................................................... 26 3.4.2 Goldsinny ......................................................................................................... 31 3.5 Recapture probability ............................................................................................... 35 4 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 38 4.1 Wrasse movement .................................................................................................... 38 4.2 Interspecific differences in movement patterns ........................................................ 39 4.3 Intraspecific variation in movement patterns ........................................................... 41 4.3.1 Corkwing .......................................................................................................... 41 4.3.2 Goldsinny ......................................................................................................... 44 4.3.3 Ballan wrasse .................................................................................................... 45 4.4 Recapture probability ............................................................................................... 45 4.5 Potential Impacts of wrasse fisheries ....................................................................... 47 5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 48 6 References ........................................................................................................................ 49 7 Appendix .......................................................................................................................... 56 IX X 1 Introduction Movement plays an essential role throughout a fish’s life. It can be made vertically or horiZontally in the three-dimensional space provided by the sea. It is associated with feeding, spawning, refuge from predators, social behavior, and habitat selection. The activities that determine whether a fish thrives or dies. Fishes can undertake long, dangerous journeys like the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) traversing vast stretches of ocean to reach the stream from which they emerged (Hendry et al. 2003). Or they can be stationary, living within and around one small sea anemone for the entirety of their life like the clownfish (Dunn 1981). And everything in between. Little, however, is known of the movements and what role they play for the wrasses found along the Norwegian coast. There are five common species of wrasse in Norway; Corkwing wrasse (Crenilabrus melops), goldsinny (Ctenolabrus rupestris), ballan wrasse (Labrus bergylta), rock cook (Centrolabrus exoletus), and cuckoo wrasse (Labrus mixtus) (Costello 1991). They are among the most numerous fish species found on shallow rocky reefs and coastlines in northern Europe (K. T. Halvorsen, Larsen, et al. 2017). Scale-rayed wrasse (Acantholabrus palloni) also appear along the coast and might be more numerous than previously assumed, though it usually inhabits deeper waters throughout its life and is proven difficult to capture with conventional methods (Costello 1991; Moen 2014). These species belong to the wrasse family (Osteichthyes: Perciformes: Labridae) the currently third most speciose marine fish family with around 550 fish species in 70 genera (Paolo Parenti and Randall 2018). This diverse and fascinating group of fishes, often recogniZed by their thick lips and bright, and often stunning coloration (Wheeler 1969) are found in tropical, subtropical and temperate seas, most commonly in shallow water habitats such as coral reefs, rocky reefs, sand, grass, and algae (Westneat and Alfaro 2005). Most species are relatively small with a body length less then 20cm, but species siZe can range from 5cm to 230cm (P Parenti and Randall 2000). The family also displays considerable morphological variation related to color and body shape, with species featuring bulbous heads such as the Asian sheepshead wrasse (Semicossyphus reticulatus) or extrudable trumpet-shaped mouths as in the Sling-jaw wrasse (Epibulus insidiator).