Restricted movements of juvenile rays in the lagoon of Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia - evidence for the existence of a nursery

Little information is available on the movements and behaviour of tropical rays despite their potential ecological roles and economic value as a fishery and a tourism resource. A description of the movement patterns and site fidelity of juvenile rays within a coral reef environment is provided in this study. Acoustic telemetry was used to focus on the use of potential nursery areas and describe movement patterns of 16 individuals of four species monitored for 1-21 months within an array of 51 listening stations deployed across a lagoon, reef crest, and reef slope at Mangrove Bay, Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. Juveniles used a small (< 1 km2), shallow (1-2 m depth) embayment where three receivers recorded 60-80 % of total detections of tagged animals, although individuals of all species moved throughout the array and beyond the lagoon to the open reef slope. Detections at these primary sites were more frequent during winter and when water temperatures were highest during the day. Long-term use of coastal lagoons by juvenile rays suggests that they provide an important habitat for this life stage. Current marine park zoning appears to provide an effective protection for juveniles within this area

DNA barcoding of rays from the South China Sea

Fishery management on elasmobranchs is gaining attention in recent years due to their economic value and the key ecological role played by them in their natural habitat. Many species of elasmobranch, especially rays, exhibit overlapping morphological similarities and hence difficult to identify to their species level. As an accurate identification is key for developing a framework for fishery management, we used a molecular approach to identify ray fishes sampled from South China Sea. We used Cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) sequencing (~652 bp) to cross-examine field identification of ray fishes. A total of 10 species belonging to 3 families were successfully sequenced/identified from 29 PCR products. BLAST/BOLD analysis was performed and inter- and intra-species genetic distance was calculated. Due to overlapping morphological characters and morphocryptic nature, their accurate field identification is challenging. We also addressed problems in species-level delimitation of ray fishes due to the paucity of information in DNA databanks besides unresolved taxonomic status of available dataset. We further addressed management and action plan for sustainable management of elasmobranch fishery in Malaysia

DNA barcoding for species assignment: the case of Mediterranean marine fishes

DNA barcoding enhances the prospects for species-level identifications globally using a standardized and authenticated DNA-based approach. Reference libraries comprising validated DNA barcodes (COI) constitute robust datasets for testing query sequences, providing considerable utility to identify marine fish and other organisms. Here we test the feasibility of using DNA barcoding to assign species to tissue samples from fish collected in the central Mediterranean Sea, a major contributor to the European marine ichthyofaunal diversity.Research carried out at University of Palermo was supported by "Fondi di Ateneo ex 60% Universita di Palermo". This work was supported by FEDER through POFCCOMPETE and by national funds from "Fundacaopara a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT)" in the scope of the grants, FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-010596 and PEst-OE/BIA/UI4050/2014. ML's work was supported by the fellowship Ref: SFRH/BPD/45246/2008 from Fundacaopara a Ciencia e a Tecnologia. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript