Evaluation of the Efficacy of the Minimum Size Rule in the Red
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University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 4-3-2009 Evaluation of the Efficacy of the Minimum Size Rule in the Red Grouper and Red Snapper Fisheries With Respect to J and Circle Hook Mortality and Barotrauma and the Consequences for Survival and Movement Karen Mary Burns University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Burns, Karen Mary, "Evaluation of the Efficacy of the Minimum Size Rule in the Red Grouper and Red Snapper Fisheries With Respect to J and Circle Hook Mortality and Barotrauma and the Consequences for Survival and Movement" (2009). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/1881 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Evaluation of the Efficacy of the Minimum Size Rule in the Red Grouper and Red Snapper Fisheries With Respect to J and Circle Hook Mortality and Barotrauma and the Consequences for Survival and Movement by Karen Mary Burns A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy College of Marine Science University of South Florida Major Professor: David A. Mann, Ph.D. Joseph J. Torres, Ph.D. Ernst B. Peebles, Ph.D. Gabriel A. Vargo, Ph.D. Gary R. Fitzhugh, Ph.D. Date of Approval: April 3, 2009 Keywords: Lutjanus campechanus, Epinephelus morio, undersized bycatch, management implications, ecomorphology © Copyright 2009, Karen Mary Burns Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my family, especially my parents Helen and John Burns, my aunt Ann Burns, and to my good friends Marvin Tinsky, the Tinsky Family and Dr. Bernie Waxman who made my education possible, to Peter Simmons III, Jay Sprinkel and Janet Gannon for their help and encouragement and all the staff ,student-interns and volunteers who worked in the Mote Marine Laboratory Fish Biology Program during the years of my tenure and all the fishers who participated in the research conducted to accomplish this task and to Janet Giles and Linda Franklin for editing this document. Acknowledgements Federal funding from NOAA/NMFS MARFIN Awards NA87FF0421, NA97FF0349, NA17FF2010, NOAA/CRP Award NA03NMF4540417 and Florida Sea Grant Award NA76RG0120 funded this work. I am indebted to my Committee David Mann, Jose Torres, Ernst Peebles and Gabriel Vargo of the University of South Florida School of Marine Science and Gary Fitzhugh of the National Marine Fisheries Service, Panama City Laboratory, for their time and encouragement, helpful advice, support and whose valuable suggestions greatly improved this manuscript. I thank Kumar Mahadevan, Ph.D., President of Mote Marine Laboratory, for allowing me to use Mote Marine Laboratory facilities for writing part of this document. I would also like to thank the staff of Florida Sea Grant and NOAA/ NMFS, all the commercial, recreational, and recreational-for-hire fishers, Fish Biology student interns and MML staff in particular, the Fish Biology staff past and present, especially, Peter Simmons III, Roger DeBruler, Nick Parnell. Carolyn Weaver and Teresa DeBruler and MML staff Jay Sprinkel, Janet Gannon, Joe Nickelson and James Greene and University of Southern Mississippi researchers Nancy Brown-Peterson and Robin Overstreet. I also wish to thank Ray Wilson of California State University-Long Beach for his advice and use of his fish hyperbaric chambers. Thanks are also extended to all the student interns and Fish Biology volunteers, especially Bernard Waxman, DMV, Daniel Weiner, DMV, John Angelini, Joseph Mazza, and Roy Francis for their help with field collections, fish care and 1 maintenance and necropsy of specimens. Special thanks are extended to all the headboat captains and crew who have allowed staff on their vessels and participated in data collection. Thanks are also extended to Bob Spaeth of Madeira Marine Services for providing red snapper and red grouper fish heads for gape and jaw lever ratio determination and coordinating the offshore long-line trips and Linda Martin of the Eagle Claw® Company for providing some of the circle hooks used in this research. Thanks are also extended to Terry Oppinger for her swim bladder illustrations and Trisa Winteringham and Linda Franklin for typing this manuscript. I am grateful to all those who have contributed to this research both in the laboratory and at sea. This study could not have been accomplished without all the MML Fish Biology staff, fishers, laboratory volunteers and student interns who spent countless hours measuring, tagging and releasing fish, filling out and sending in data forms and tag returns, contacting fishers returning tags to obtain critical information, helping with necropsies, photodocumentation, assembly of tagging packets and spending hours on data entry and QA. Special thanks to all the fish sitters who spent many hours on long shifts observing fish behavior and monitoring pressure gauges on the fish hyperbaric chambers. 2 Table of Contents List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi Abstract .............................................................................................................................. xi Chapter One: Evaluation of the Efficacy of the Minimum Size Rule in the Red Grouper and Red Snapper Fisheries With Respect to J and Circle Hook Mortality and Barotrauma and the Consequences for Survival and Movement: An Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 References Cited ......................................................................................................5 Chapter Two: Hook Mortality Differences in Red Grouper (Epinephelus morio) and Red Snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) ....................................................................9 Abstract ....................................................................................................................9 Introduction ............................................................................................................10 Materials and Methods ...........................................................................................13 Acute Mortality ..........................................................................................13 Latent Mortality - Direct Observations ......................................................14 Fish Tagging ..............................................................................................15 Dentition and Jaw Lever Ratios .................................................................19 Feeding Videos ..........................................................................................20 Results ....................................................................................................................23 Acute Mortality ..........................................................................................23 Latent Mortality .........................................................................................25 Tag and Release and Circle versus J Hooks ..............................................26 Dentition and Jaw Lever Ratios .................................................................29 Feeding Videos ..........................................................................................36 Discussion ..............................................................................................................39 Acute Mortality ..........................................................................................39 Circle Hooks ..............................................................................................39 Dentition and Jaw Lever Ratios .................................................................41 Feeding Videos ..........................................................................................44 Fish Ecomorphology and Hooks ................................................................44 References Cited ....................................................................................................47 i Chapter Three: Differences between Red Grouper (Epinephelus morio) and Red Snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) Swim Bladder Morphology and How These Differences Affect Survival during Rapid Depressurization .......................................55 Abstract ..................................................................................................................55 Introduction ............................................................................................................58 Methods..................................................................................................................65 Acute Mortality ..........................................................................................65 Swim Bladder Differences .........................................................................65 Swim Bladder Collection and Processing ..................................................65 Laboratory