Herbivorous on the plate: the growing fishing pressure on parrotfishes
Bayesian models, parrotfish, spatial distribution, small-scale fishery.
Parrotfishes (Labridae: Scarini) are primarily herbivorous reef fishes that play a critical functional role in reefs environments by avoiding coral overgrowth by algae. Some studies suggest that commercial fisheries are exploiting large numbers of parrotfishes from Brazilian reefs, leading to significant changes in the community structure. Specifically, three species, Scarus trispinosus (Valenciennes, 1840), Sparisoma frondosum (Agassiz, 1831) and Sparisoma axillare (Steindachner, 1878), have been intensively targeted in the Northeastern Brazilian coast. Despite their economic and ecology interest, few studies focus on these species. Here, hierarchical Bayesian spatial-temporal models are used to map the distribution of these three species along the Northeastern Brazilian coast. Harbor observers sampled landings of three different gears (gill nets, spears and lines) during one year, recording abundance and geographical information of each fishery operation. Results show that habitats associated with warm and deep waters along the lower latitudes, have a greater probability registering the presence of the studied species than others. Primary production show a positive relationship only with S. trispinosus, that also has the more coastal distribution with respect to the others species. Finally, the random effect of fishermen is significant for all species, highlighting the importance of fisheries management development associated with spatial planning for these ecologically important and vulnerable species.