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Publications (126)
Laboratory-based studies examining fish physiological and behavioural responses to temperature can provide important insight into species-specific habitat preferences and utilisation, and are especially useful in examining vulnerable life stages that are difficult to study in the wild. Here, we couple shuttle box behavioural experiments with respir...
Barotrauma—injury induced by changes in pressure—is a widespread challenge for successfully releasing fishes following capture. We used acoustic telemetry to examine the long-term post-release survival and behaviour of four rockfish species (genus Sebastes) suffering from barotrauma following capture using recreational fishing techniques. We placed...
Coralliozetus clausus, a new species of chaenopsid blenny, endemic to Isla del Coco, Costa Rica, is described. This small species, not exceeding 15 mm SL, is a short-bodied member of the genus along with Coralliozetus cardonae (Caribbean), Coralliozetus angelicus, and Coralliozetus springeri (both eastern Pacific). It differs from its closest relat...
Globally, one quarter of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction due to overfishing. Effective conservation and management can facilitate population recoveries. However, these efforts depend on robust data on movement patterns and stock structure, which are lacking for many threatened species, including the Critically Endangered soupfi...
Gobiesocidae are a moderate-sized family (currently 182 species, 51 genera) of predominantly coastal marine fishes, commonly referred to as clingfishes. Depending on the classification adopted, the species and genera of clingfishes are organized either across ten subfamilies, based on a classification scheme introduced in the 1950s (“traditional” c...
Acanthemblemaria aceroi new species is described from the upwelling region of the Caribbean coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. It differs from its closest relative, Acanthemblemaria rivasi Stephens, 1970, known from Panama and Costa Rica, in the posterior extent of the infraorbitals, details of head spination, and unique COI sequences. The descripti...
Several temperate marine taxa of the northern hemisphere follow a trans-Pacific biogeographic track with representatives on either side of the intervening boreal waters. Shelter-dwelling blenniiform fishes of the genus Neoclinus exhibit this trans-Pacific distribution pattern with three species in the eastern North Pacific and eight species in the...
An unusually long period of warm-water temperatures occurred off southern California (USA) in 2014–2018, and the highest sea-surface temperature ever recorded in a 103-year span of continuous data collection occurred in August 2018. Poleward distributional shifts in the geographic range of hundreds of marine organisms worldwide have been documented...
As part of a broad-scale study of the biogeography of rocky reefs in the Gulf of California, Mexico (GOC), we collected a continuous 1-yr temperature time series at ~5 m water depth at 16 sites spanning 5° of latitude and ~700 km along the western boundary of the basin. Throughout the region, thermal conditions were most variable in summer with flu...
A reply to Flessa et al. (2019)
Synopsis
The study of sexual differences provides insights into selective factors operating on males and females, especially for clades exhibiting varied levels of dimorphism. Sexual differences in morphology and coloration (melanophores) were compiled for 66 of the 89 species of tube blennies (Blenniiformes, Chaenopsidae) from the systematic liter...
The vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus) is Mexico’s only endemic, and the world’s most endangered marine mammal. With a population of fewer than 30 individuals (Thomas et al. 2017; IUCN 2018), any delay in taking needed conservation actions will result in its extinction. A recent article (Manjarrez-Bringas et al. 2018) re-asserts, without providing a...
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at the University of California, San Diego maintains one of the largest combined oceanographic collections in the world comprising four collections: Geological (sediment cores and dredged rocks), Pelagic Invertebrates, Benthic Invertebrates and Marine Vertebrates. After surviving threats of dissolution,...
Courting males often face the trade-off of attracting the attention of both females and predators. Rapid color change, a relatively simple solution to this dilemma, is described for nuptial males of the Fishgod Blenny Malacoctenus ebisui (Teleostei: Blenniiformes) from direct observations at three rocky reefs in the Mexican Pacific. Nuptial males s...
The Sarcastic Fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi, Teleostei) exhibits an extreme version of a common aggressive display, the “gaping display,” in which an open mouth is presented toward an opponent. Males of this species have extremely long jaws that extend posteriorly well past the posterior margin of the head and are flared laterally during the gap...
Small, cryptic (cryptobenthic) fishes are an under-surveyed component of reef fish assemblages that can account for a significant amount of diversity, function, and structure of reef fish communities. A complete picture of reef fish dynamics requires an accounting of these species and inclusion of them in analyses of community ecology. We report th...
A review of published research indicates that the Northern Gulf of California is, historically and currently, one of the most biologically productive marine regions on Earth. This high productivity is driven by a unique mix of factors, including: coastal upwelling, wind-driven mixing, extreme tidal mixing and turbulence, thermohaline circulation th...
Gobiesox lanceolatus is described from a single specimen collected from 300 meters depth in the Los Frailes submarine canyon in the southwestern Gulf of California. The "Canyon Clingfish" is unique within Gobiesox in having a lanceolate caudal fin, with the central rays longer than those above and below them. It is also distinguished by 14 dorsal-f...
Statement of significance:
Batoid fishes have very light cartilaginous skeletons that facilitate their elegant swimming by applying their enlarged wing-like pectoral fins. Previous studies have shown structural features and mechanical properties of the mineralized cartilage skeleton in various batoid fishes. However, the details of the pectoral fi...
Ichthyoliths—microfossil fish teeth and shark dermal scales (denticles)—are found in nearly all marine sediments. Their small size and relative rarity compared to other microfossil groups means that they have been largely ignored by the paleontology and paleoceanography communities, except as carriers of certain isotopic systems. Yet, when properly...
Despite the ongoing need for shark conservation and management, prevailing negative sentiments marginalize these animals and legitimize permissive exploitation. These negative attitudes arise from an instinctive, yet exaggerated fear, which is validated and reinforced by disproportionate and sensationalistic news coverage of shark 'attacks' and by...
Spreadsheet containing the complete dataset for Experiments 1, 2a, 2b, and 3.
(XLSX)
Additional details on experimental treatments, stimulus materials, sample demographics, and analyses on perception measures between video and audio-only treatments.
(DOCX)
The common thresher shark Alopias vulpinus constitutes an important commercial fishery on the Pacific coasts of both the USA and Mexico. However, little is known about the juvenile phase of this species. This study used a combination of pop-up archival satellite tagging, tag-recapture, and fishery catch data to investigate the movement patterns, ha...
An annotated checklist of marine fishes of the Sanctuary of Islands and Islets of Bahía Chamela in the central Mexican Pacific is presented. Records of fish species were obtained by different methods including visual census, sampling with anesthetics, fisherman-nets, and trawling with a biological dredge. Additional records were obtained from natur...
How animals navigate the constantly moving and visually uniform pelagic realm, often along straight paths between distant sites, is an enduring mystery. The mechanisms enabling pelagic navigation in cartilaginous fishes are particularly understudied. We used shoreward navigation by leopard sharks (Triakis semifasciata) as a model system to test whe...
Reusable tagging apparatus, showing the modified Vemco V16TP transmitter with a galvanic timed release (GTR) and syntactic foam float (spray-painted orange).
A Floy Tag FIM-96 identification tag was glued to the syntactic foam float to facilitate sighting and recovery at the surface (right photo; tagging apparatus having detached from shark, shown...
Effect of current on leopard shark movements released from Site A.
Mean current profiles over tracks of sharks released from Site A are shown on the left graph, with the zonal component as a solid black line (negative is west and positive is east) and the meridional component as a dashed black line (negative is south and positive is north). To the...
Mean swimming depths of anosmic (released from Site A; dashed red line), sham-control (released from Site A; dashed black line), and normal leopard sharks (released from Site B; dashed black line).
Also shown is mean thermal profile along tracks of sharks released from Site A (solid black line) and Site B (solid blue line), as well as mean chloroph...
Final approaches to shore of two representative leopard sharks with “touch-down” onto the benthos after crossing over the continental shelf.
Depth data (black dots connected by solid black lines) are shown at 1-min resolution, spanning a window of 60 minutes. Bottom depth is indicated by thick gray line. The sham-treated shark tracked on 8-Jul-2014...
Zoomed in view of box in California (CA) inset map.
The extent of offshore and alongshore transport shown by small black dots, which indicate the simulated tracks of clusters of 100 virtual drifters released just offshore at a depth of 20 m (black arrow), directly east of release site A. Release site B is shown for reference. These drifters were re...
Mean weighted vector (MWV) bearings and lengths (r) for tracked ground paths of sham-treated (black arrows, n = 15) and anosmic (red arrows; n = 11) leopard sharks released from Site A and normal sharks released from Site B (blue arrows, n = 10).
The bold arrow in each plot represents the grand MWV for the group. Shaded wedges in each plot represen...
Resource partitioning is a fundamental ecological concept in which cooccurring species reduce competition by using or specializing on different resources (1). It is widely accepted as a mechanism permitting similar species to cooccur, leading to increased levels of species diversity (2). Typically, resources are thought of as food, habitat, or beha...
A new species of seven-spined goby of the genus Chriolepis is described from five specimens collected from the continental shelf of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean off South Carolina in depths of ca 54 to 110 m. The "Platform Goby", Chriolepis prolata, is distinguishable from all other western Atlantic species currently assigned...
The marine waters surrounding La Jolla, California have a diverse array of habitats and include several marine protected areas (MPAs). We compiled a list of the fish species occurring in the vicinity based on records of specimens archived in the Marine Vertebrate Collection (MVC) of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). Collection of fishe...
A new species of seven-spined goby of the genus Chriolepis is described from four specimens from four widely separate western Atlantic localities (Little Bahama Bank; off southwestern Florida; Tobago Island; and northeastern Colombia) from depths ranging from 62 to 138 m. The species is distinct from all other western Atlantic species currently ass...
The Blenniiformes comprises six families, 151 genera and nearly 900 species of small teleost fishes closely associated with coastal benthic habitats. They provide an unparalleled opportunity for studying marine biogeography because they include the globally distributed families Tripterygiidae (triplefin blennies) and Blenniidae (combtooth blennies)...
Hermaphroditism is taxonomically widespread among teleost fishes and takes on many forms including simultaneous, protogynous, and protandrous hermaphroditism, bidirectional sex change, and androdioecy. The proximate mechanisms that influence the timing, incidence, and forms of hermaphroditism in fishes are supported by numerous theoretical and empi...
A comparative study of the reproductive organs in 17 of the 30 species of the tribe Starksiini (Labrisomidae, Blenniiformes) and related labrisomids reveals the major traits of gamete form and production and likely reproductive modes. The testes are of the lobular type and have a testicular gland and sperm ducts. Isodiametric sperm (aquasperm) with...
Three new species of the triplefin blenny genus Enneanectes found in the Pacific Ocean off southern Mexico are described. Two, Enneanectes glendae and Enneanectes macrops, are mainland species, while the third, Enneanectes exsul, is endemic to the Islas Revillagigedo. A key to the five species of Enneanectes known from the tropical eastern Pacific...
The Loreto Bay National Park (LBNP) is a large, multi-use marine protected area in the Gulf of California, Mexico, where several types of small-scale commercial and recreational fishing are allowed, but where less than 1% of the park is totally protected from fishing. The LBNP was created in 1996; its management plan was completed in 2000, but it w...
The present study describes the distribution of taste buds and teeth in the oropharyngeal cavity of 13 species of adult (18-60 mm SL) Starksiini fishes inhabiting subtidal waters of the Neotropical region. Four types of taste buds described previously in other fish groups were observed within the oropharyngeal cavity, of which type I, situated on p...
Museum fish collections possess a wealth of anatomical and morphological data that are essential for documenting and understanding biodiversity. Obtaining access to specimens for research, however, is not always practical and frequently conflicts with the need to maintain the physical integrity of specimens and the collection as a whole. Non-invasi...
We engaged in cooperative research with fishers and stakeholders to characterize the fine-scale, spatio-temporal characteristics of spawning behavior in an aggregating marine fish (Cynoscion othonopterus: Sciaenidae) and coincident activities of its commercial fishery in the Upper Gulf of California. Approximately 1.5-1.8 million fish are harvested...
Supplementary Information - Suppl. Fig. S1
Neotropical reef fish communities are species-poor compared to those of the Indo-West Pacific. An exception to that pattern is the blenny clade Chaenopsidae, one of only three rocky and coral reef fish families largely endemic to the Neotropics. Within the chaenopsids, the genus Acanthemblemaria is the most species-rich and is characterized by elab...
The evolution of hermaphroditism in fishes has intrigued scientists for over a century, but few have studied fine-scale evolutionary transitions between sexual patterns within the context of detailed hypotheses regarding phylogenetic relationships. Our phylogenetic reconstruction of sexual patterns in the seabasses (Teleostei: Serranidae) using a c...
Background/Question/Methods
The coastal ecosystems, harvested species, and commercial fisheries of the Gulf of California Region are characterized by immense spatial and temporal heterogeneity, yet this key feature is rarely incorporated into resource management. We draw upon the results of three case studies that each combine biological, environm...
The first comprehensive list of 318 coastal fish species recorded from the Islas Marías Archipelago, Mexico, was compiled from recent fieldwork, archival museum collections, and literature references. The jacks (Carangidae, 18 species) and the labrisomid blennies (Labrisomidae, 16) were the most speciose families. Most recorded species occur throug...
Phylogenetic relationships within tube blennies (Chaenopsinae) were reconstructed using Bayesian, maximum parsimony and likelihood analyses of multiple molecular markers (mitochondrial DNA: COI; nuclear DNA: TMO-4C4, RAG1, Rhodopsin, and Histone H3) and 148 morphological characters. This total-evidence based topology is well-resolved and congruent...
The molecular revolution in phylogenetic biology and its widespread application to fishes has in some ways complicated the task of teaching my craft of ichthyology. Beginning students know nothing of the history of fish classifications, how they were created, how they have changed over the years or how and why they continue to change. On the first...
Erisman, B. E., Paredes, G. A., Plomozo-Lugo, T., Cota-Nieto, J. J., Hastings, P. A., and Aburto-Oropeza, O. 2011. Spatial structure of commercial marine fisheries in Northwest Mexico. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: .
The spatial structure of commercial marine fisheries in Northwest (NW) Mexico was investigated using official landings data f...
In order to assess the contribution of fish spawning aggregations and aggregating species to commercial marine fisheries in the Gulf of California, we: (1) investigated associations between the timing of spawning aggregations and monthly trends in commercial landings and ex-vessel revenues for aggregating reef fishes in the southwest Gulf of Califo...
Blennioid fishes comprise almost 900 described species, most of which are associated with coastal environments. Yet, essentially nothing has been published regarding the reproductive biology of more than 90 percent of blennioid species. This chapter explores spawning, mate choice, and parental care in blennioid species within an evolutionary contex...
The reproductive biology of the Panama graysby Cephalopholis panamensis was studied from collections and behavioural observations made in the Gulf of California from 2001 to 2006. Histological examinations, particularly the identification of gonads undergoing sexual transition, confirmed a protogynous hermaphroditic sexual pattern. The population s...
Ecological specialization is common on coral reefs and almost certainly contributes to the high diversity of fishes and invertebrates
associated with reefs. Here, the recruitment pathway of an endemic Gulf of California fish, the Browncheek Blenny, Acanthemblemaria crockeri (Teleostei: Chaenopsidae), which specializes as an adult on vacant inverteb...
The size-advantage model asserts that mating behavior influences the incidence and direction of sex change in animals. Selection for protogyny (female to male sex change) occurs in mating systems in which large males monopolize and pair spawn with females; however, gonochorism (no sex change) is favored when adults spawn in groups and sperm competi...
Species inventories for macroecology, biogeography and conservation biology rely upon accurate lists of valid species. In order to provide a more uniform taxonomic treatment for blennioid fishes, we evaluated the taxonomic status of 21 species with currently recognized subspecies. In six cases we found no compelling evidence for recognizing these n...
Species inventories for macroecology, biogeography and conservation biology rely upon accurate lists of valid species. In order to provide a more uniform taxonomic treatment for blennioid fishes, we evaluated the taxonomic status of 21 species with currently recognized subspecies. In six cases we found no compelling evidence for recognizing these n...
The Gulf of California endemic reef fish, Acanthemblemaria crockeri (Blennioidei, Chaenopsidae), reportedly has two colour morphs, one with melanic lateral spots ('Gulf' morph) and one with orange spots ('Cape' morph). In this study, we recorded colour morph in both males and females and collected mitochondrial DNA sequence data for cytochrome c ox...
The coastal marine waters surrounding North and South America have long been recognised as biogeographically distinct. While most biogeographers have traditionally considered tropical and temperate marine waters separately (e.g., Ekman, 1953; Briggs, 1974), this analysis explores the diversity and distributions of both tropical and temperate blenni...
Mitochondrial DNA sequence data from a segment of the cytochrome b (cytb) gene were used to Infer geographic distributions of two unnamed putative species of eastern Pacific bonefishes, Albula sp. A and Albula sp. C, both members of the A. vulpes complex. The molecular data revealed that Albula sp. C, a lineage originally Identified from Panama, Is...
The Tropical Eastern Pacific Biogeographic Region (TEP) is delimited by steep thermal gradients to the north and south, by a wide expanse of open ocean (the East Pacific Barrier) to the west, and by the Central American land mass to the east. Four provinces within the TEP have been recognized based on the distribution of rocky shore fishes and mari...
