CHOAT JH, ROBERTSON DR (2008) AN ECOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE ST HELENA AND ASCENSION ISLAND POPULATIONS OF THE JACK (EPINEPHELUS ADSCENSIONIS) WITH A REVIEW OF MANAGEMENT OPTIONS.

CHOAT JH, ROBERTSON DR (2008) AN ECOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE ST HELENA AND ASCENSION ISLAND POPULATIONS OF THE JACK (EPINEPHELUS ADSCENSIONIS) WITH A REVIEW OF MANAGEMENT OPTIONS. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.18130800 This report to the Government of St Helena Island is based on the results of fieldwork at St Helena by the authors in 2006. It examines the demography of an important commercial fishery resource at St Helena, that for the “Jack”, Epinephelus adscensionis (Epinephelidae). It compares the demography of that species at St. Helena and the nearby mid-Atlantic island, Ascension Island, which lacks such a commercial fishery and where fieldwork was also conducted in 2006. The report also compares the demography at both islands of five taxonomically and ecologically diverse species of reef fishes that are not fished at either island. Those species are Acanthurus bahianus (Acanthuridae, Brazil and both islands), Sparisoma strigatum (Labridae: Scarinae, endemic to both islands), Ophioblennius cf atlanticus (Blenniidae, endemic to both islands) and a pair of closely related species, one endemic to each island: Stegastes sanctahelenae at St Helena and S. lubbocki at Ascension (Pomacentridae). This latter group of five species provides information relevant to assessing effects of differences in the island environments and fish assemblages independent of effects due to a commercial fishery.