IEEE/OES RIO Acoustics 2013

Hydroacoustic surveys as contribution to the study

of spawning aggregations of Nassau Grouper
(Epinephelus striatus) in the Yucatan
E.O. Linares∗ , J. Guillard† , P. Schneider‡ , P.I. Caballero§ , F. Gerlotto¶ and P. Brehmer¶
∗ Instituto
de Oceanologia, Ave 1ra. No 18406 esq. 186 Rpto Flores, Playa La Habana, Cuba
† UMR-CARRTEL, Centre Alpin de Recherche sur les Reseaux Trophiques
et Ecosystemes Limniques, 75 avenue de Corzent, F-74203 Thonon-les-Bains, France
‡ AQUASON, San Antonio Marka Claret 186-188, 4-2, 08025 Barcelona, Spain
§ Centro de Estudios Tecnologicos del Mar, Cetmar No 10 Chetumal Q.Roo, Mexico
¶ IRD, Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, Avenue Jean Monnet BP 171, 34203 Sete Cedex, France

Abstract—One of the main species in the Caribbean cost analytical and holistic mathematical models, and in very few
of Yucatan-Mexico is the Mero (Epinephelus striatus), but the cases modern methods, such as acoustics (Camarena et al.,
fisheries are beginning to go down and the principal reason 1994) are used. For this reason, the present work is important
could be the over-catch. The objective of this work is to study the
aggregations of the Nassau Grouper, as well as the rest of the fish because is the second time that hydroacoustic methods in
populations associated with the slope of the Mexican Caribbean shallow waters of the Mexican part of the Caribbean have
of the Yucatán Peninsula, using hydroacoustic methods, and to been applied.
establish a methodology that allows the continuation of these The technical performance of modern acoustic instruments
studies for the evaluation and a major knowledge of these allow to apply new methodological approaches in the search
resources. In this area the evaluation of the fisheries of fish has
not been a priority. Some acoustic surveys were made over three of solutions for areas that reach from very shallow waters (ref)
years trying to have a contact with the aggregation of Mero in the to the abrupt slope, enabling the study of aggregations of fish
spawning season. The place selected was the Mahahual beach and that live in these areas or that use them as spawning ground.
the south of Chinchorro Bank Reserve. Many triangular transects There is poor information on the characteristics of the ecol-
were execute from 8 m depth to the end of the talud till 60m. ogy and fishery of the Nassau Grouper (Epinephelus striatus).
The main hydroacoustic equipments used was the BIOSONICS
DT-5000 at a frequency of 130 kHz and BIOSONICS DT-X at Comments are available on the fishery at the site of Mahahual
208 kHz that represented a good method to study this specie. (18o 43’N, 87o 42’W) in its initial phase (Carranza-Fraser
The TS (target strength) analysis are giving for different depth 1955, Solís-Ramírez 1966, Miller 1982), and more recent
stratas, the must quantity of fish with TS between -35 and - studies deal with the traditional fishery during the spawning
20dB were detected in the slopes of 30 and 50 m depth, possibly aggregations of this species at the same site (Aguilar-Perera,
Mero in spawning. Visual observations from divers reported some
individuals Mero and school of different species that are common 1994), as well as a preliminary study of the Grouper fishery in
in this area. No expected concentrations of Mero were found but the South of Quintana Roo (Sosa-Cordero and Cárdenas-Vidal,
some fishermen report a high Mero aggregation in January 2001 1995).
in Xcalak at south of the surveys. Biological studies of Epinephelus striatus during three pe-
Index Terms—Nassau Grouper; Epinephelus striatus; aggre- riods in the area of Mahahual (1991-1994) report individuals
gation; spawning; echosounder; hydroacoustic.
with lengths between 39 and 88 cm, ranging in weight from
1300-9700 g, and having a sex ratio male to female of 1.4:1
I. I NTRODUCTION
(Aguilar-Perera et. al., 1996). The Nassau Grouper is known
In the State of Quintana Roo, the evaluation of the fisheries for migrating in the Caribbean and concentrates at historic
has not been a priority in the research lines of the existing spawning areas for reproduction with variable intervals of
scientific institutions. The main fisheries activity is centred 3 to 4 days before or after full moon, during December,
on species like Spiny lobster (Panulirus argus), the shrimp January and February. The fishing activity of this area is
(Penaeus schmitti) and the Queen conch (Strombus gigas), considered as artisan fishery, given the degree of development
which present a high economic value for fishermen. Fish in of fishing methods and techniques applied (Miller, 1982 and
general are in third place of importance, and few works related Sosa Cordero and Cardenas-Vidal, 1995). The effects of both,
to them have been developed, most works being on marine artisan and furtive fishery within the aggregations of tropical
lobster and Queen conch. This situation shows the importance and reef fish, like in the case of the Nassau Grouper, have led
of opening perspectives and focus work on the evaluation of to the partial or even total disappearance of these aggregations
the fisheries of fish. The scientific knowledge respect to the at sites used in the past by these fish, in spite of the regulations
evaluation of fish in Mexico is based on the application of for their protection.

978-1-4799-0362-7/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

 Fig. 2. Schematic view of the sea bottom topography, the applied techniques
and typical transects executed.

performed with a standard target (32 mm tungsten carbide

sphere), located 3 m below the transducer surface. In the
case of the DT5000 equipment, a difference of −0.5 dB with
respect to the established standard values was found. This
offset was introduced correspondingly into the systems setup.
In case of the DT6000, no correction was required.
Generally, triangle or "zig-zag" transects (Fig. 2) were
Fig. 1. Selected places for survey (Mahahual and Banco Chinchorro, Mexico). performed in direction to the coastline, with the objective to
cut the slope in a perpendicular sense, up to depths around
60 m, where the sudden drop off occurs and which is where
Due to the distribution of the Caribbean reefs, the State of the particular interest in the knowledge of the abundance of
Quintana Roo coast is the only area in Mexico where reef the fish, located specifically here, was founded. Furthermore,
fish aggregate for spawning or reproduction. In a first intent, some transects were performed parallel to the coastline, trying
acoustic sampling in the area of Mahahual was performed to maintain roughly a constant bottom depth, with the objective
with a commercial FURUNO echosounder, allowing basic to observe the distribution of the fish at this particular depth.
observations in the work area. The objective of this work is to In areas of possible aggregations of the Nassau Grouper,
study the aggregations of the Nassau Grouper associated with transects were concentrated, searching the dense shoals re-
the slope of the Mexican Caribbean in the Yucatán Peninsula, ported by the fishermen in other occasions. For the analysis,
using hydroacoustic methods, and to establish a methodology the water column was divided into levels (strata) of 10 m
that allows the continuation of these studies for the evaluation each, and the reports were established for each 400 pings ap-
and a major knowledge of these resources. proximately. The information during processing was collected
The areas selected for the study were the Southern part in one file per transect. TS analysis was restricted to values
of Banco Chinchorro and the littoral of Mahahual (Fig. 1), between -55 dB and -20 dB. This range corresponds, based
both located on the Eastern part of the Yucatan Peninsula, on empirical assumptions, basically to the expected size range
Mexico. In both cases exists a slope beginning at the reef of the general species in the area that include the Epinephelus
barrier, at about 8 m depth, down to about 60 m, where the stratus (Caballero-Pinzón et. al., 2000).
seabed abruptly drops off. The Multibeam Sonar deployed in the second year of
In order to carry out the acoustic survey, the ship BIP- observation was used for searching shoals and mainly while
VIII (12 m), employed by SEMARNAP (Secretaría de Medio performing transects parallel to the coastline. In order to verify
Ambiente, Recursos Naturales y Pesca) for the investigation the existence of the resource, divers were used as well as have
of the protected natural area of Banco Chinchorro, was used. been realised surveys amongst the fishermen in the area. In
In case of the Mahahual survey also small boats with outboard order to obtain the data used for the graphical presentation
engine were used, depending on the sea state. of the distribution of the resource per strata and the TS
In the years 2000 and 2001 data acquisition was performed (Target Strength), the files with extension *.DTE, generated
with a BIOSONICS DT5000 digital echosounder, using a 130 by BIOSONICS Visual-Analyzer software during processing,
kHz dual beam digital transducer, while in the 2002 survey a were used. Data from the survey in 2002 has been partially
BIOSONICS DT6000 digital echosounder with a 208 kHz split processed using SonarData EchoView.
beam digital transducer was deployed. In 2001, additionally a During the recognition and the acoustic study of the area,
RESON 6012 Multibeam Sonar with an operating frequency of two half-landings of the sea bottom are observed, which occurs
455 kHz was used. The calibration of the echosounders was very frequently at depths between 30 and 40 m as well as
Fig. 3. TS fish distribution in dB per strata during the prospection in
Mahahual.

between 50 and 60 m,. In both cases, this is where the major

portion of the areas where fish is encountered, mainly in the
one between 50 and 60 m.
Analysis Multibeam Sonar in 2001 shown that no significant
aggregation of fish, then no Mero’s spawning was observed. A
quantity of medium and small sized fish with TS smaller than
−40 dB, major than that of fish of larger sizes, is recognized
in the study area (Figs 3 and 4).
No significant shoals of fishes with larger sizes (−30 dB)
that could correspond to Epinephelus striatus aggregations are
detected in Mahahual, except in the second slope between
40 and 50 m where is possible that some quantity of Mero
appearance for spawning in the area (Fig. 3).
In Banco Chinchorro, the smaller fish is predominant too,
but there are quantities of larger size of fish under −30 dB that
could represent the Mero in spawning (Fig. 4). In 2001 and
2002, the possible presence of plankton and small fish with
TS minor than -45 dB are observed, while in 2000 smaller
fish occupied the all area.
The BioSonics echosounder systems DT5000 and DT6000
are adequate tools for the prospection and the knowledge of
the fisheries resources in the areas of the Caribbean slope up
to 60 m depth.
While it was difficult to verify the detection of larger targets
as coming specifically from Epinephelus striatus, mainly due
to the restrictions related with diving procedures and also due
to the fact that other species of the same or similar sizes are
common in the area, generally a higher number of fish could
be observed in the deeper layers where Epinephelus striatus is
known to aggregate for spawning in this stage of the year, it
was observed in the target strength (TS) values for the three Fig. 4. TS fish distribution per strata during the prospection in Banco
Chinchorro.
years of survey.
Although it became clear that hydroacoustic surveys are
an adequate tool for the study of spawning aggregations
of Epinephelus striatus, and generally for the fish species [1] A. Aguilar-Perera, Preliminary observations of the spawning aggregation
present in the study area, a particular problem is the fact of Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) at Majahual, Quintana Roo,
México, Proceeding of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute. 43:
that the aggregations only occur during a few days and at 112-122, 1994.
very specific locations, some fishermen report a high Mero [2] A. Aguilar-Perera and W. Aguilar-Davila, A spawning aggregation of
aggregation in January 2001 in Xcalak at south of the acoustic Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus ), (Pisces: Serranidae) in the
Mexican Caribbean, Environmental Biology of Fishes. 45: 351-361, 1996.
execute transects, which makes it difficult or even impossible [3] J. Carranza-Frazer, Pesca y Recursos Pesqueros, Yucatán, Campeche y
to perform a systematic survey. A further and important Quintana Roo. Dir. Pesca. pp.25, 1955.
restriction is the limited number of dives divers can perform [4] P. Caballero-Pinzón and E.O. Linares and J. Guillard, Presentación de
avances de los resultados del proyecto estudio del Mero (Epinephelus
in the given time frame. As verification of the observations striatus) por métodos hidroacústicos en la costa caribena de Mexico, X
made through the acoustic system is an essential part of the Reunión RAC, Costa Rica, 19-21 Oct, 2000.
method, further experience from further surveys is required to [5] T. Camarena and J.J. Levenez and C. Hernández and A. Y. Aguilar and W.
Aguilar, Ensayo de Estimación de la abundancia de las agregaciones de
develop adequate solutions for this problem. mero (Epinephelus striatus) por Eco-integración, Amigos de Sian Ka’an
No significant shoals of fishes with larger sizes (TS between Serie Doc. 2: 49-52, 1994.
−35 and 20 dB) that could correspond to Epinephelus striatus [6] D.L. Miller, Mexicot’s Caribbean Fishery: Recent Change and Current
Sigues, PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
aggregations are detected in Mahahual and Banco Chinchorro, USA. 250pp, 1982.
except in the slopes where some discrete quantity of these [7] M.J. Solís-Ramírez, Recursos Pesqueros del territorio de Quintana Roo,
targets was encountered may be for spawning. México: Xcalak y Banco chinchorro, Trab. Divulg. Secretaría de Pesca,
Industria y Comercio 101: 1-24, 1966.
The BioSonics echosounder systems DT5000 and DT6000 [8] E.Y. Sosa-Cordero and J.L. Cardenas -Vidal, 1995. Estudio Preliminar
are adequate tools for the prospection and the knowledge of de la pesquería de mero (Epinephelus striatus) del sur de Quintana Roo,
the fisheries resources in the areas of the Caribbean slope up México.
to 60 m depth.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work has been supported by several Institutions,
namely Centro de Estudios Tecnológicos del Mar (CETMar
No. 10), Mexico, the Institut de Recherche pour le Développ-
ment (IRD), France and Red Acústica del Caribe (RAC). Also,
we would like to express our gratitude to the Reserva de la
Biosfera de Banco Chinchorro, Mexico and to Amigos de
Sian Ka’an, Mexico, who were of great help in this project.
The authors are very thankful to Dr Rostand Tayong for
proofreading this manuscript.
R EFERENCES