Ciguatera: a continuing problem for Hong Kong's consumers, live reef fish traders and high-value target species

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Live reef-fishery species feature prominently in first marine fish IUCN Red List

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Population Structure and Phylogeography in Nassau Grouper (Epinephelus striatus), a Mass-Aggregating Marine Fish

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Effects of the trawling ban on demersal fish communities in the marine environment of Hong Kong, South China

Oral PresentationFisheries & Marine Resources ManagementFishery resources in Hong Kong have been over-exploited since the 1970s. In 2010, there were still around 400 trawlers operating in local waters. These trawlers nonselectively catch marine organisms of all sizes, while exerting severe physical damage to the benthic ecosystem. To mitigate the associated impacts of overfishing and trawling, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has imposed a territory-wide trawling ban across local marine waters since 31 December 2012. This study aims to investigate if the trawl-ban policy is effective to facilitate recovery of demersal fish resources, in terms of species diversity, abundance and biomass, in Hong Kong. Under an approved scientific permit, trawl surveys were conducted using a commercial shrimp trawler in eastern (EW), western (WW) and southern waters (SW) of Hong Kong from ...postprin

Spatial variation in trophic structure of Demersal Fish Communities in the marine environment of Hong Kong, South China

Poster presentation: P-55Fisheries & Marine Resources ManagementHong Kong’s western coastal waters (WW) situated at the Pearl River Estuary are heavily influenced by freshwater and sediment discharges from the Pearl River, while its eastern waters (EW) are mainly affected by oceanic and tidal currents. The southern waters (SW) are positioned along this estuarine-oceanic salinity gradient. Such variations in hydrography and salinity drive differences in trophic structure in local marine ecosystems. This study aimed to investigate the spatial variation in trophic structure of six demersal fish communities in WW (inner and outer estuary), EW (inner and outer Tolo Channel) and SW (waters in southeast and around Lamma). Stable isotopic ratios of δ13C and δ15N of all benthic fishes caught in trawl surveys during July-September and ...postprin

Testing a global standard for quantifying species recovery and assessing conservation impact

Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a “Green List of Species” (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species’ progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 separate but interlinked components: a standardized method (i.e., measurement against benchmarks of species’ viability, functionality, and preimpact distribution) to determine current species recovery status (herein species recovery score) and application of that method to estimate past and potential future impacts of conservation based on 4 metrics (conservation legacy, conservation dependence, conservation gain, and recovery potential). We tested the framework with 181 species representing diverse taxa, life histories, biomes, and IUCN Red List categories (extinction risk). Based on the observed distribution of species’ recovery scores, we propose the following species recovery categories: fully recovered, slightly depleted, moderately depleted, largely depleted, critically depleted, extinct in the wild, and indeterminate. Fifty-nine percent of tested species were considered largely or critically depleted. Although there was a negative relationship between extinction risk and species recovery score, variation was considerable. Some species in lower risk categories were assessed as farther from recovery than those at higher risk. This emphasizes that species recovery is conceptually different from extinction risk and reinforces the utility of the IUCN Green Status of Species to more fully understand species conservation status. Although extinction risk did not predict conservation legacy, conservation dependence, or conservation gain, it was positively correlated with recovery potential. Only 1.7% of tested species were categorized as zero across all 4 of these conservation impact metrics, indicating that conservation has, or will, play a role in improving or maintaining species status for the vast majority of these species. Based on our results, we devised an updated assessment framework that introduces the option of using a dynamic baseline to assess future impacts of conservation over the short term to avoid misleading results which were generated in a small number of cases, and redefines short term as 10 years to better align with conservation planning. These changes are reflected in the IUCN Green Status of Species Standard

The case of the disappearing grouper; Epinephelus striatus, the Nassau grouper, in the Caribbean and western Atlantic

Fulltext in http://procs.gcfi.org/pdf/gcfi_45-1.pdfThe Nassau grouper, Epinephelus striatus, was once a species of considerable commercial significance in the Caribbean and western Atlantic. Over the last two decades, however, annal landings have declined sharply in many areas, and the species is now effectively extinct commercially in Bermuda Puerto Rico, and the U. S. Virgin Islands. Of particular concern are the declines in, or losses of, fully one fifth of spawning aggregations. Because these likely represent the total yearly reproductive output of participating individuals, their disappearance or disturbance will inevitably influence future recruitment and fishery yield. The apparent vulnerability of this species to heavy exploitation is believed to result from a combination of its biology (i.e., long life, slow growth, etc.), large size of sexual maturation relative to other components of multispecies fisheries, its aggregating habit and its susceptibility to fish traps and the speargun. Recommendations are made for the protection of spawning biomass through the management of aggregations, and for reducing growth overfishing through the introduction of marine reserves. Biological and fishery information necessary to monitor, manage and restore stocks is identified

Review of report on the internatinal trade in seahorses

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