- Title
- Role of the Amathole Marine Protected Area in protecting vulnerable and threatened reef fish
- Creator
- Phillips, Moraea Megan Taberer
- ThesisAdvisor
- Bernard, Anthony
- ThesisAdvisor
- Heyns-Veale, Elodie
- Subject
- Reef fishes South Africa Amathole District Municipality
- Subject
- Reef fishes Conservation South Africa Amathole District Municipality
- Subject
- Reef ecology South Africa Amathole District Municipality
- Subject
- Rare fishes South Africa Amathole District Municipality
- Subject
- Fish populations South Africa Amathole District Municipality Monitoring
- Subject
- Fish declines South Africa Amathole District Municipality
- Subject
- Underwater videography in wildlife monitoring South Africa Amathole District Municipality
- Subject
- Amathole Marine Protected Area
- Subject
- Petrus rupestris (Red Steenbras)
- Subject
- Polysteganus undulosus (Seventyfour seabream)
- Subject
- Chrysoblephus cristiceps (Daggerhead seabream)
- Date
- 2021-10-29
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/192152
- Identifier
- vital:45200
- Description
- The Amathole Marine Protected Area (MPA) was first established on a voluntary basis in the 1980’s by local ski-boat fishermen and comprised three small no-take areas near East London. In 2011, the areas received official recognition as the Amathole MPA and in 2019 an offshore extension was granted, increasing the area covered from 250 km2 to over 4000 km2. Though the inshore Amathole MPA has benefitted from decades longer of reprieve from fishing activity than the offshore MPA, it is limited in both its coastal and depth extent, placing in doubt its capacity to provide meaningful protection to several heavily threatened target species. Among the numerous endemic Sparids for which the Amathole region constitutes a vital portion of their distributional range are red steenbras (Petrus rupestris), seventyfour (Polysteganus undulosus), and dageraad (Chrysoblephus cristiceps). The stocks of all three species have collapsed and urgent intervention has been recommended to enable their recovery, including protection in strategically placed MPAs. The offshore Amathole MPA covers an extensive portion of prime habitat for these and other species, but no formal research has been carried out on fish assemblages in the region. As such, data to substantiate the benefits of the inshore Amathole MPA and to provide a baseline reference for the offshore MPA are lacking. This study made use of baited remote underwater stereo-video systems (stereo-BRUVS) to survey fish assemblages in the inshore Amathole MPA, adjacent inshore exploited areas, and exploited areas seaward of the inshore MPA. Sampling was carried out in 2015 and 2016, prior to the establishment of the offshore Amathole MPA. Fish assemblages from the inshore MPA were compared with those from adjacent exploited areas within the same depth range and from the offshore zone between 76 and 112 m depth. Within the inshore zone, biomass and abundance of target species were greater inside the MPA than in adjacent exploited areas, with vulnerable fisheries species showing the strongest response to protection. Offshore assemblages consisted of fewer species and fewer fish overall than those from the inshore zone but were dominated by larger individuals and those from higher trophic levels. The size of C. cristiceps was consistent across the sampled depth range but abundance of this species declined rapidly at depths of more than 60 m. Within the inshore zone, both abundance and size of C. cristiceps were greater in the MPA than in adjacent exploited areas. The size of P. rupestris was consistent across the sampled depth range and between protected and exploited areas, but this species was considerably more abundant offshore. Where P. rupestris was detected inshore it was almost exclusively in the MPA. No difference in the size or abundance of P. undulosus was found between the inshore MPA and inshore Abstract exploited areas, but both measures were found to increase with depth, with reproductive-sized adults restricted to the offshore zone. Despite its limited benefits for larger species, the inshore Amathole MPA is a critical refuge for smaller and more resident species like C. cristiceps, demonstrating the possibilities for conservation and management of endangered species in small MPAs. Baseline abundance and size measures for P. rupestris and P. undulosus recorded here indicate that the offshore extension of the Amathole MPA is ideally situated to protect spawner stock of these species and potentially contribute to the recovery of their stocks across a wider distributional range.
- Description
- Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Zoology and Entomology, 2021
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (158 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Science, Zoology and Entomology
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Phillips, Moraea Megan Taberer
- Rights
- Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- Rights
- Open Access
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | PHILLIPS-MSC-TR21-278.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |