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The marine fishes of St Eustatius Island, northeastern Caribbean: an annotated, photographic catalog

Sint Eustatius (Statia) is a 21 km(2) island situated in the northeastern Caribbean Sea. The most recent published sources of information on that island’s marine fish fauna is in two non-governmental organization reports from 2015–17 related to the formation of a marine reserve. The species-list in...

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Autores principales: Robertson, David Ross, Estapé, Carlos J., Estapé, Allison M., Peña, Ernesto, Tornabene, Luke, Baldwin, Carole C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Pensoft Publishers 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7788074/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33505184
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1007.58515
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author Robertson, David Ross
Estapé, Carlos J.
Estapé, Allison M.
Peña, Ernesto
Tornabene, Luke
Baldwin, Carole C.
author_facet Robertson, David Ross
Estapé, Carlos J.
Estapé, Allison M.
Peña, Ernesto
Tornabene, Luke
Baldwin, Carole C.
author_sort Robertson, David Ross
collection PubMed
description Sint Eustatius (Statia) is a 21 km(2) island situated in the northeastern Caribbean Sea. The most recent published sources of information on that island’s marine fish fauna is in two non-governmental organization reports from 2015–17 related to the formation of a marine reserve. The species-list in the 2017 report was based on field research in 2013–15 using SCUBA diving surveys, shallow “baited underwater video surveys” (BRUVs), and data from fishery surveys and scientific collections over the preceding century. That checklist comprised 304 species of shallow (mostly) and deep-water fishes. In 2017 the Smithsonian Deep Reef Observation Project surveyed deep-reef fishes at Statia using the crewed submersible Curasub. That effort recorded 120 species, including 59 new occurrences records. In March-May 2020, two experienced citizen scientists completed 62 SCUBA dives there and recorded 244 shallow species, 40 of them new records for Statia. The 2017–2020 research effort increased the number of species known from the island by 33.6% to 406. Here we present an updated catalog of that marine fish fauna, including voucher photographs of 280 species recorded there in 2017 and 2020. The Statia reef-fish fauna likely is incompletely documented as it has few small, shallow, cryptobenthic species, which are a major component of the regional fauna. A lack of targeted sampling is probably the major factor explaining that deficit, although a limited range of benthic marine habitats may also be contributing.
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spelling pubmed-77880742021-01-26 The marine fishes of St Eustatius Island, northeastern Caribbean: an annotated, photographic catalog Robertson, David Ross Estapé, Carlos J. Estapé, Allison M. Peña, Ernesto Tornabene, Luke Baldwin, Carole C. Zookeys Research Article Sint Eustatius (Statia) is a 21 km(2) island situated in the northeastern Caribbean Sea. The most recent published sources of information on that island’s marine fish fauna is in two non-governmental organization reports from 2015–17 related to the formation of a marine reserve. The species-list in the 2017 report was based on field research in 2013–15 using SCUBA diving surveys, shallow “baited underwater video surveys” (BRUVs), and data from fishery surveys and scientific collections over the preceding century. That checklist comprised 304 species of shallow (mostly) and deep-water fishes. In 2017 the Smithsonian Deep Reef Observation Project surveyed deep-reef fishes at Statia using the crewed submersible Curasub. That effort recorded 120 species, including 59 new occurrences records. In March-May 2020, two experienced citizen scientists completed 62 SCUBA dives there and recorded 244 shallow species, 40 of them new records for Statia. The 2017–2020 research effort increased the number of species known from the island by 33.6% to 406. Here we present an updated catalog of that marine fish fauna, including voucher photographs of 280 species recorded there in 2017 and 2020. The Statia reef-fish fauna likely is incompletely documented as it has few small, shallow, cryptobenthic species, which are a major component of the regional fauna. A lack of targeted sampling is probably the major factor explaining that deficit, although a limited range of benthic marine habitats may also be contributing. Pensoft Publishers 2020-12-30 /pmc/articles/PMC7788074/ /pubmed/33505184 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1007.58515 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Robertson, David Ross
Estapé, Carlos J.
Estapé, Allison M.
Peña, Ernesto
Tornabene, Luke
Baldwin, Carole C.
The marine fishes of St Eustatius Island, northeastern Caribbean: an annotated, photographic catalog
title The marine fishes of St Eustatius Island, northeastern Caribbean: an annotated, photographic catalog
title_full The marine fishes of St Eustatius Island, northeastern Caribbean: an annotated, photographic catalog
title_fullStr The marine fishes of St Eustatius Island, northeastern Caribbean: an annotated, photographic catalog
title_full_unstemmed The marine fishes of St Eustatius Island, northeastern Caribbean: an annotated, photographic catalog
title_short The marine fishes of St Eustatius Island, northeastern Caribbean: an annotated, photographic catalog
title_sort marine fishes of st eustatius island, northeastern caribbean: an annotated, photographic catalog
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7788074/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33505184
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1007.58515
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