The Devil in the Deep: Expanding the Known Habitat of a Rare and Protected Fish
Summary (1 min read)
Box 1: Extending our knowledge of deep reef assemblages
- The eastern blue devil fish was not the only species that the authors recorded outside its known depth range.
- It soon became clear that a number of more common species were also captured on camera outside their previously recorded depth range (Fig. 3 , Table 1 ).
- The list of species that were recorded on BRUVS samples with each species habitat association, percentage of reef (n=18) and sand (n=56) samples that each species was recorded on, depth range listed in the scientific literature (depth range based on Kuiter 2000 , Gomon et al.
- Species that were recorded >10 m deeper than in the literature are highlighted in bold.
Species
- The list of species that were recorded on BRUVS samples with each species habitat association, percentage of reef (n=18) and sand (n=56) samples that each species was recorded on, depth range listed in the scientific literature (depth range based on Kuiter 2000 , Gomon et al.
- Species that were recorded >10 m deeper than in the literature are highlighted in bold.
- These observations further support their hypothesis that the depth range of eastern blue devil fish and also other coastal reef species is likely being underestimated.
- Often the fishermen did not know what they were and posted a description or photos for identification on online fishing forums (L. Fetterplace, pers. obs.) .
- This knowledge can help give conservation measures for this species the greatest chance of success, whilst also benefitting the management of deeper offshore reefs.
Ethical Note:
- The sampling methods in this study were approved by the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries animal care and ethics committee, ACEF Ref: 10/09.
- Supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarships.
- The authors thank Prof Andy Davis, members of the Davis Lab, staff at Jervis Bay Marine Park and Batemans Marine Park for their assistance in the field.
- The authors also thank Margie Andréason and Cameron Fetterplace who provided valuable comments and suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript and Sascha Schulz, Sue Newson and Mark McGrouther for their assistance and helpful discussion of species identification and current range.
- The authors also acknowledge the efforts of reviewer Dr Ladislav Pekarik and one other anonymous reviewer who helped to improve the initial manuscript.
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Cites background from "The Devil in the Deep: Expanding th..."
...…et al. 2017; Roberson et al. 2017; Wellington, Wakefield & White 2017; Alós et al. 2018; Benjamins et al. 2018; Devine, Wheeland & Fisher 2018; Fetterplace et al. 2018; Hammerschlag et al. 2018; Harasti et al. 2018b; Irigoyen et al. 2018; Jabado et al. 2018; Mensinger, Putland & Radford 2018;…...
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4 citations
Cites background from "The Devil in the Deep: Expanding th..."
...Anglers are often keen to participate in the management of fish stocks, but may also be skeptical about revealing the exact location of their fishing sites, so this type of recognition may lead to a further increased interest in fish conservation issues (Granek et al., 2008; Fetterplace et al., 2018)....
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...Hence, anglers’ records and notes are excellent sources for confirmed qualitative data on presence of species in certain areas and can be useful and important, but underutilized, auxiliary, and corroborating sources for mapping distributions and habitats of data-deficient species (Fetterplace et al., 2018)....
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References
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"The Devil in the Deep: Expanding th..." refers background in this paper
...Many other reef fish species most probably occur on deeper reefs in Australia and in coastal waters globally (Purcell et al. 2014), and we are simply not yet looking deep enough....
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...S pe ci es th at w er e re co rd ed > 10 m de ep er th an in th e lit er at ur e ar e hi gh lig ht ed in b ol d. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY suitable habitat likely exists on deeper offshore reefs (Purcell et al. 2014)....
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...28 suitable habitat likely exists on deeper offshore reefs (Purcell et al. 2014)....
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4 citations