Protected areas and benthic characteristics influence the distribution of the Vulnerable bumphead parrotfish Bolbometopon muricatum in the Andaman ...

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Protected areas and benthic characteristics influence the distribution of the Vulnerable bumphead parrotfish Bolbometopon muricatum in the Andaman ...
Protected areas and benthic characteristics influence
             the distribution of the Vulnerable bumphead
             parrotfish Bolbometopon muricatum in the
             Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India
                                                  V A R D H A N P A T A N K A R , T A N M A Y W A G H and A N I R U D D H A M A R A T H E

             Abstract The Vulnerable bumphead parrotfish Bolbometopon                               ; Hughes et al., ; Burkepile & Hay, ) and
             muricatum, a highly prized fishery resource worldwide, has                             piscivory (Jennings & Polunin, ; Boaden & Kingsford,
             experienced population declines throughout its geographical                            ). Conservation of such fish groups is a key priority
             range. There is limited knowledge of the distribution and                              for ecosystem managers (Nyström, ; Bellwood et al.,
             abundance of, and threats to, this fish in Indian waters, par-                         ). One such fish that is also of conservation concern
             ticularly for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. To assess the                           is the bumphead parrotfish Bolbometopon muricatum, the
             species’ distribution and conservation status we conducted                             largest herbivorous and corallivorous fish, categorized as
             underwater surveys across  sites around  islands and                               Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (Chan et al., ). An
             interviewed  fishers across the Andaman and Nicobar                                  individual can consume up to  t of structural reef carbonate
             archipelago. We recorded a total of  individual B. murica-                           per year (Bellwood et al., ), and the species promotes
             tum across nine sites from the northernmost island in the                              coral growth and recruitment by balancing coral erosion
             Andamans (Landfall Island) to the southernmost island in                               and calcification, preventing macroalgal growth and main-
             the Nicobars (Great Nicobar Island). Interviews revealed                               taining sediment flow in the reef ecosystem (Bellwood et al.,
             that most fishers (% in Nicobar, % in Middle Anda-                                , ; Kobayashi et al., ; McCauley et al., ;
             man, % in South Andaman) had seen B. muricatum,                                      Roff et al., ).
             and knowledge of the species is highest amongst spear-                                     A large body size, aggregating behavior and limited
             fishers. Generalized linear models indicated that presence                             activity at night make B. muricatum an easy target for spear-
             of marine protected areas and high live coral cover influ-                             fishers (Bellwood et al., ; Donaldson & Dulvy, ;
             enced the abundance and distribution of B. muricatum.                                  Kobayashi et al., ; Chan et al., ; Munoz et al.,
             The species’ density seems to be naturally low in the archipel-                        ; Hamilton et al., ). Combined with slow growth
             ago. We discuss our findings in the light of protecting rare                           and low replacement rates, this has resulted in population
             and threatened species, and recommend strengthening the                                declines across the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea (Kobayashi
             existing marine protected areas in these islands.                                      et al., ; Chan et al., ; Andrews et al., ). These
                                                                                                    declines have been particularly marked in the Solomon
             Keywords Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bolbometopon
                                                                                                    Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Guam, the Marshall
             muricatum, bumphead parrotfish, coral reefs, India, marine
                                                                                                    Islands and parts of Malaysia and Fiji (Bellwood et al.,
             protected area
                                                                                                    ; Aswani & Hamilton, ; Dulvy & Polunin, ).
             Supplementary material for this article is available at                                Many countries have implemented conservation measures
             https://doi.org/./S                                              for the species, including establishment of marine protected
                                                                                                    areas and restrictions on spearfishing (Dulvy & Polunin,
                                                                                                    ; Weeks et al., ).
             Introduction                                                                               In India B. muricatum occurs from the Gulf of Mannar in
                                                                                                    Tamil Nadu state (Varghese et al., ), to the Lakshadweep

             C    ertain fish groups have important functional roles in
                  structuring coral reef ecosystems, including corallivory
             (Cole et al., ), herbivory (Diaz-Pulido & McCook,
                                                                                                    archipelago (Rohan Arthur, pers. comm.) and the Andaman
                                                                                                    and Nicobar Islands (Rajan et al., ). Little is known
                                                                                                    about the species’ distribution and conservation status
             VARDHAN PATANKAR* (Corresponding author,          orcid.org/0000-0002-9088-
                                                                                                    around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In the recent
             4537) and TANMAY WAGH* Wildlife Conservation Society, 551, 7th Main                    past the islands have been affected by a series of coral
             Road, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, 2nd Phase, Kodigehalli, Bengaluru, India                     bleaching events (in , ,  and ) and the
             E-mail vardhanpatankar@gmail.com
                                                                                                    Tsunami of , which may have disturbed the species’
             ANIRUDDHA MARATHE Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment
             (ATREE), Bengaluru, India
                                                                                                    habitat (Jeyabaskaran and Rao ; Patankar et al., ;
                                                                                                    Mondal et al., ).
             *Also at: National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental
             Research, Bengaluru, India                                                                 For species that are rare, threatened or Data Deficient,
             Received  July . Revision requested  October .                              local ecological knowledge has been used to examine popula-
             Accepted  February . First published online  February .                    tion trends (Aswani & Hamilton, ; Lavides et al., ;

                                                                                        Oryx, 2020, 54(4), 564–571 © 2019 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605318000376
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https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318000376
Bumphead parrotfish                565

           Lavides et al., ; Pan et al., ). Studies that have com-                        November –April . At each site we counted B.
           bined ecological data from underwater surveys with infor-                              muricatum along five random  ×  m transects ( m)
           mation from fishers have shown that both sources can                                   delineated with a  m fiberglass tape. Identification of
           provide reliable information (Iniesta-Arandia et al., ;                            B. muricatum is relatively straightforward because of its
           Zappes et al., ). In addition, the inclusion of local eco-                         large size and the presence of a unique bulbous bump on
           logical knowledge in conservation research can increase the                            the head. On sighting, we counted the number of individuals
           involvement of local stakeholders in conservation activities                           and visually estimated their size. A prior calibration was
           (Drew, ). We therefore used a combination of surveys                               conducted to refine the accuracy and precision of our
           and interviews to assess the abundance, distribution and                               underwater size estimates until they were within % of
           conservation status of B. muricatum across the Andaman                                 actual lengths.
           and Nicobar Islands. Using generalized linear models, we
           test whether abundance is influenced by a combination of
           benthic variables and the presence of marine protected                                 Benthic cover
           areas, and discuss our findings in the light of developing con-
                                                                                                  We quantified the benthic cover (live coral cover, turf algae,
           servation strategies for B. muricatum around these islands.
                                                                                                  macroalgae, sand, rubble, soft coral and others) at each tran-
                                                                                                  sect by photographing five  ×  m quadrats, one at each  m
           Study area                                                                             along the  m transect, using an underwater camera with-
                                                                                                  out flash. Per cent benthic cover categories were measured
           The Andaman and Nicobar archipelago of India is part of                                using Adobe Photoshop . (Adobe Systems, San Jose, USA).
           the Indo-Myanmar and Sundaland biodiversity hotspots
           in the south-eastern Bay of Bengal (Davidar et al., ;
           Roberts et al., ). The archipelago comprises  islands                           Documentation of local knowledge
           and a land area of , km, with a total coastline of
           , km. It includes the Andaman group (.  islands,                                To investigate the awareness and perception of B. murica-
            inhabited, , km) and the Nicobar group ( islands,                            tum by fishers we conducted a total of  semi-structured
            inhabited, , km), separated from each other by the                             interviews (Huntington, ) during January –May
           Ten-degree Channel. The Andaman Islands have  pro-                                  , in three villages in South Andaman (Wandoor,  in-
           tected areas ( national parks and  wild sanctuaries), all                           terviews; Junglighat, ; Mohanpura, ), two villages in
           of which encompass coast and surrounding waters, and                                   Mayabunder in Middle Andaman () and five villages in
           the Nicobar Islands have seven community-protected mar-                                the Nicobars (Tapong, ; Hitui, ; Ramjav, ; Masala
           ine areas, with restrictions on fishing and other resource use                         Tapu, ; Kakana, ). These are the major fishing villages
           activities (Patankar et al., ). The islands are influenced                         in the archipelago. All respondents were male, as fishing
           by both the south-west and north-east monsoons (May–                                   activities are predominantly carried out by men in this re-
           December).                                                                             gion. The number of interviews in each region was based
                                                                                                  on the intensity of fishing, the ethnic heterogeneity of the
                                                                                                  fishing community and the diversity of fishing gear used.
           Methods                                                                                Thus, there were  interviews in South Andaman, which
                                                                                                  has the highest number of fishing vessels, several ethnic
           We surveyed sites across the archipelago, to account for                               groups (Telugu, Bengali, Malayali and Tamil) and a high
           variability in coastal morphology, oceanographic condi-                                diversity of fishing gear (gillnets, trawls, long lines, hook
           tions, geography and reef resources. In total we surveyed                              and lines, cast nets, and hand-held wooden spears and
           six sites at Camorta Island, four at Great Nicobar Island                              harpoons), and  in Middle Andaman and  in Central
           and Nancowry Island, two at Aves, Katchal, Little                                      Nicobar, where spearfishing and hook-and-line are the
           Nicobar, Interview, Twins, Cinque, Sister, Rutland and                                 common fishing methods used, by Karen and Nicobari
           Eastern Reef islands, and one site at all other locations.                             communities. We used the snowball sampling method to se-
           The number of sites around each island were selected                                   lect the interviewees in each village (Kvale, ). Interviews
           based on the size of the island, aspect, and location and                              were conducted in Hindi in South Andaman, and in in
           accessibility of the reef (Fig. ).                                                    Karen and Nicobari in the Middle Andaman and Nicobar
                                                                                                  Islands, respectively.
           Density and abundance                                                                      To minimize any potential bias, all interviews were car-
                                                                                                  ried out by VP, with help of a local interpreter in the Middle
           At each site we estimated the abundance of B. muricatum,                               Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Most interviews lasted
           carrying out an underwater visual census at a total of                               – minutes and were conducted at fishers’ houses or
           reef sites across  islands, using SCUBA diving, during                               at fish landing sites. The questions included personal data

           Oryx, 2020, 54(4), 564–571 © 2019 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605318000376
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 46.4.80.155, on 04 Feb 2021 at 22:44:38, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318000376
566         V. Patankar et al.

                                                                                                                                     FIG. 1 Survey sites and the presence
                                                                                                                                     of the bumphead parrotfish
                                                                                                                                     Bolbometopon muricatum in the
                                                                                                                                     Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The
                                                                                                                                     islands/sites that were surveyed for
                                                                                                                                     B. muricatum status are: , Landfall;
                                                                                                                                     , East; , White cliff; , Reef;
                                                                                                                                     , Excelsior; , Delgarno; , West;
                                                                                                                                     , Ross and Smith; , Craggy;
                                                                                                                                     , Kwangtung; , Latouche;
                                                                                                                                     , North Reef; , Sound; , Aves;
                                                                                                                                     , Interview; , South Reef; , Long
                                                                                                                                     Island; , North Bay; , North
                                                                                                                                     Button; , Guitar; , Middle Button;
                                                                                                                                     , Outram; , Henry Lawrence;
                                                                                                                                     , Strait; , John Lawrence;
                                                                                                                                     , Havelock; , Eastern Reef;
                                                                                                                                     , Neil; , Sir Hugh Ross; , Ross;
                                                                                                                                     , Twins; , Tarmugli; , Grub;
                                                                                                                                     , Chester; , Malay; , Rutland;
                                                                                                                                     , Boat; , Jollybuoy; , Red Skin;
                                                                                                                                     , Cinque; , North Passage;
                                                                                                                                     , Sister; , Trinket; , Camorta;
                                                                                                                                     , Katchal; , Nancowry;
                                                                                                                                     , Menchal; , Great Nicobar;
                                                                                                                                     , Little Nicobar; , Cabra; ,
                                                                                                                                     Kondul. The nine labelled locations
                                                                                                                                     are where the interviews were
                                                                                                                                     carried out.

             about the respondents (island and village of residence, age,                           fishing, time of fishing (day/night) and where they fished.
             gender, level of education), preferred fishing gear, target and                        Interviews were recorded in writing and later transcribed
             non-target species captured, and awareness of B. murica-                               for quantitative analysis. Before an interview, respondents
             tum. In particular, the fishers were asked if they were                                were provided with information about the nature and
             aware of B. muricatum in their waters, and were shown                                  expected goals of the study, complete confidentiality was
             photographs, to avoid erroneous results arising from the                               assured, and interviews proceeded only with consent of
             use of different local names for the same fish. We then                                the interviewee.
             asked fishers how many times they had seen the fish in
             the previous year, and how many times they had seen                                    Data analysis
             aggregations (i.e. .  individuals). When people provided
             information about their experience of catching B. murica-                              We used descriptive statistics to analyse interview data.
             tum, we requested descriptive details of the method of                                 Bolbometopon muricatum spends most of its time foraging

                                                                                        Oryx, 2020, 54(4), 564–571 © 2019 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605318000376
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 46.4.80.155, on 04 Feb 2021 at 22:44:38, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318000376
Bumphead parrotfish                567

           on structural reef carbonate (Bellwood et al., ;                                   Smith Island (%, n = ) in North Andaman and lowest
           Donaldson & Dulvy, ) and, as marine protected areas                                (%) at Katchal, West, Redskin, Kondul and Menchal
           of sufficient size can protect such fish species (Sadovy                               Islands. Zero-inflated Poisson regression models for the
           ; Green et al., ), we expected higher abundances                               effects of benthic variables and presence/absence of a marine
           in protected areas with a high per cent of live coral cover.                           protected area on the abundance of B. muricatum showed that
           The number of sites without B. muricatum was high (                                  live coral cover was an important predictor and any additional
           of ) and therefore we used zero-inflated Poisson general-                            effects of benthic variables on the zero inflation part of the
           ized linear models (GLM) to model abundance. An explora-                               model could not be identified. The effects of live coral and
           tory analysis revealed that these models performed better                              presence of a protected area were positive in all count models.
           than a GLM with Poisson error (Vuong test statistic = .,                            The best model contained effects of live coral, rubble and sand
           P , .). The zero-inflated Poisson GLM is a two-step                                 and management variables (Table ).
           process in which abundances are modelled as count vari-
           ables with a Poisson distribution conditional on the prob-
           ability that the values are non-zero (a binomial variable).                            Fishers characteristics
           As B. muricatum was encountered at only a few sites we                                 Of the  male respondents % were #  years of age and
           did not include multiple variables in a single model, to                               % . , and level of education was low (most respondents
           avoid overfitting. We compared the effects of live coral,                              had not completed secondary education). All interviewees
           soft coral and others, turf algae, and with and without a                              were full-time fishers, except in South Andaman where
           marine protected area. If the zero abundances in the data                              % were part-time fishers, with farming as their alternative
           can be attributed entirely to the species’ biology, then the                           livelihood. All fishers used more than one type of fishing
           zero model should only contain a single intercept term.                                gear, to diversify catch composition. Hook-and-line, hand-
           We used package pscl .. in R . for regression analysis                            held wooden spears and harpoons and gillnets were the
           (R Development Core Team, ).                                                       most common fishing methods. Amongst these, hook-
                                                                                                  and-line was the most commonly used fishing gear across
                                                                                                  regions, followed by gills nets, spears and harpoons. The
           Results
                                                                                                  characteristics of respondents are summarized in Table .
           Abundance and distribution
                                                                                                  Awareness/knowledge of B. muricatum
           Around the  islands surveyed, we sighted a total of  indi-
           vidual B. muricatum at nine islands (seven in the Andamans                             Most fishers were aware of the presence of B. muricatum in
           and two in the Nicobars), with Sister Island in South                                  their waters (see Table  for a summary of respones to all
           Andaman having the highest abundance ( individuals)                                  questions). Amongst these, all fishermen in Central
           and the largest shoal size ( individuals), followed by                               Nicobar and Middle Andaman had seen aggregations of
           Craggy Island in North Andaman (one shoal of  individ-                               the fish. Bolbometopon muricatum was most commonly
           uals), six individuals at Nancowry, four individuals each at                           referred to as tota macchi, which translates to parrotfish in
           Rutland and John Lawrence islands, and a single individual                             Hindi, the most widely spoken language in the archipelago.
           at Great Nicobar, Landfall, Cinque and Neil Islands. All the                           All respondents in Middle Andaman and Nicobar had seen
           fish were .  cm except one subadult (,  cm) at Neil                                B. muricatum feeding, whereas in South Andaman only %
           Island. We did not observe any juveniles. This could be                                had seen feeding. All the interviewed fishers who were
           because the habitat we sampled is not preferred by juvenile                            aware of the presence of the fish in their waters were also
           reef fish (Hamilton et al., ). The average density of                              aware that B. muricatum is not legally protected in the
           B. muricatum was . individuals per ha at the nine                                 Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Anon., ). Most fishers
           sites where we sighted the fish, and the density across the                            in the Nicobars (%), all fishers in Middle Andaman, and
           entire archipelago was . individuals per ha.                                      % of fishers in South Andaman had hunted the fish in their
                                                                                                  lifetime, using hand-held wooden spears or harpoons,
                                                                                                  mostly in daylight. All fishers who had caught the fish in
           Influence of benthic cover and protected areas                                         their lifetime reported that the catch was opportunistic
           Rutland Island in South Andaman had the highest live coral                             rather than targeted.
           cover (mean . ± SE .%,  sites); the lowest was recorded
           at Excelsior (n = ), Kwantung (n = ) and Landfall (n = )                            Discussion
           Islands (mean  ± SE .%). Thirty-one islands surveyed
           had an intermediate cover of live coral (–%). Algal                                We carried out the first investigation of the distribution and
           cover was low at most sampled sites, with the highest at                               abundance of the Vulnerable B. muricatum in the Andaman

           Oryx, 2020, 54(4), 564–571 © 2019 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605318000376
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 46.4.80.155, on 04 Feb 2021 at 22:44:38, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318000376
568         V. Patankar et al.

             TABLE 1 Detailed individual, social and fishing characteristics of fishers interviewed in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Fig. ).

             Characteristics                                                                                    South Andaman           Middle Andaman           Central Nicobar
             No. of fishers interviewed                                                                              60                      17                       22
             Age (%)                                               , 30                                               7                      29                       14
                                                                   30–40                                             37                      53                       41
                                                                   41–50                                             40                        0                      27
                                                                   . 50                                              17                      18                       18
             Education (%)                                         None                                              57                      35                       35
                                                                   Below 10th grade (15 years of age)                37                      65                       65
                                                                   Below 12th grade (18 years of age)                  5                       0                        0
                                                                   Below 21 years of age                               1                       0                        0
             Full-time fisher (%)                                                                                    67                     100                      100
             Part-time fisher (%)                                                                                    33                        0                        0
             Mean no. of weeks spent at sea/year ± SD                                                           3.55 ± 1.98             3.00 ± 1.11              4.09 ± 1.63
             % of fishermen using gear                             Gillnet                                            0                        0                      50
                                                                   Hook & line                                      100                     100                      100
                                                                   Harpoon/spear                                     13                     100                       68

             TABLE 2 Awareness/knowledge of fishers regarding Bolbometopon muricatum in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (responses, except for
             range of sightings, are per cent of respondents on each island).

                                                                                                                         South                 Middle
             Questions                                                                           Characteristics         Andaman (%)           Andaman (%)           Nicobar (%)
             Are you aware of the presence of B. muricatum in your waters?                       Yes                      62                     94                   100
                                                                                                 No                       38                      6                     0
             If yes, is it protected under the Wildlife Protection Act of India?                 Protected                 0                      0                     0
                                                                                                 Not protected            62                     94                   100
             Have you ever seen aggregations of B. muricatum                                     Yes                      16                    100                   100
               (i.e. . 25 individuals)?                                                          No                       84                      0                     0
             On how many occasions have you seen aggregations                                    not seen                 35                     13                    36
               in the past year?                                                                 1–5                      65                     63                    45
                                                                                                 6–10                      0                      6                    14
                                                                                                 . 10                      0                     18                     5
                                                                                                 Range                   1–5                   1–15                  2–15
             In your lifetime, have you seen B. muricatum feeding?                               Yes                      22                    100                   100
                                                                                                 No                       78                      0                     0
             In your lifetime, have you hunted B. muricatum?                                     Yes                       8                    100                    91
                                                                                                 No                       92                      0                     9
             If yes, with which method and at what time (day/night)?                             Spear (day)              33                     94                    77
                                                                                                 Spear (night)             0                      6                    18
                                                                                                 Harpoon (day)            67                      0                     5

             and Nicobar archipelago, using both quantitative and                                   however, markedly lower than those in other areas (Great
             qualitative approaches. The species occurs broadly, from the                           Barrier Reef:  per ha; Solomon Islands: .–. per ha;
             northernmost island in Andaman (Landfall Island) to the                                Hamilton & Choat, ).
             southernmost island in the Nicobars (Great Nicobar Island)                                In areas where B. muricatum is a fishery resource, free
             and, except for fishers from South Andaman, most respon-                               diving spearfishers exclusively target nocturnal aggregations
             dents were aware of the presence of this fish, its aggregation                         (Comeros-Raynal et al., ). However, in the Andaman
             behavior and had seen it feeding. Although we sighted                                and Nicobar Islands all fishers reported that catch was
             individuals from nine islands, the fish occurs patchily, with                          opportunistic rather than targeted. The main fishing gear
             most sightings from only two islands, and with an apparently                           used in the islands is hook-and-line and, other than spear
             naturally low density. The mean density we recorded (.                            or harpoon fishers, most do not encounter B. muricatum
             per ha) is comparable to that observed on reefs of Malaysia                            on their regular fishing trips.
             (. per ha), Myanmar (. per ha) and Thailand                                     We found that the presence of a protected area, live coral
             (. per ha; Kobayashi et al., ). These densities are,                          and algal cover significantly influenced the distribution and

                                                                                        Oryx, 2020, 54(4), 564–571 © 2019 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605318000376
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https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318000376
Bumphead parrotfish              569

           TABLE 3 The three best zero-inflated Poisson regression models testing the effects of management status (presence of marine protected
           areas, MPA) and benthic variables on the abundance of B. muricatum in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

                                                                                          Parameter estimates                    Model fit
           No.              Model*                      Covariates                        (mean ± SE)                            (Mc-Fadden’s pseudo-R2)                        AICc
           1                Count model                 Intercept                         −1.39 ± 0.95                           0.14                                           149.95
                                                        Presence of MPA                    0.70 ± 0.34
                                                        Live coral                         0.07 ± 0.01
                            Zero model                  Intercept                          0.98 ± 0.63
                                                        Rubble                             0.07 ± 0.05
                                                        Sand                               0.03 ± 0.05
           2                Count model                 Intercept                         −1.39 ± 0.95                           0.13                                           148.20
                                                        Presence of MPA                    0.76 ± 0.34
                                                        Live coral                         0.07 ± 0.01
                            Zero model                  Intercept                          1.26 ± 0.53
                                                        Rubble                             0.07 ± 0.05
           3                Count model                 Intercept                         −1.47 ± 0.95                           0.12                                           148.24
                                                        Presence of MPA                    0.77 ± 0.01
                                                        Live coral                         0.07 ± 0.34
                            Zero model                  Intercept                          1.90 ± 0.36
           *Count model describes covariates for abundance data, and zero model describes covariates for sites with zero abundance.

           abundance of B. muricatum. Although changes in the com-                                conserving similar functionally important fish groups and
           position of these benthic characteristics as a result of distur-                       protecting the coral reefs of the islands.
           bances could have negatively affected the abundance and
           distribution of this species in the Andaman and Nicobar
                                                                                                  Acknowledgements The study was conducted with funding from
           Islands (Krishnan et al., ; Patankar et al., ), no base-                       the Research Fellowship Program, Wildlife Conservation Society,
           line data are available. Marine protected areas in which fish-                         and Ravi Sankaran Inlaks Fellowship Program. We thank the
           ing and other activities are restricted aid the conservation of                        Department of Environment and Forests, Port Blair, for granting us
           fish stocks (Donaldson & Dulvy, ) and in the Andaman                               permits to carry out this work and for a boat for reef surveys;
           and Nicobar Islands the existing protected areas may be                                M. Gangal, R. Arthur, T. Alcoverro, N. Kelkar and E. D’Souza for sup-
                                                                                                  port and advice; the Andaman and Nicobar Island’s Environmental
           vital for the protection of B. muricatum and other fishes.                             Team and Nature Conservation Foundation for help with SCUBA
           Evidence of low abundance of B. muricatum on ocean                                     equipment and field logistics; and Saw John, Elrika D’Souza, Saw
           reefs surrounded by deep waters, and traits such as limited                            Berny, Saw Alexander, Saw Sawda, Tanvi Vaidyanathan and Sahir
           dispersal and gregariousness, could also have influenced the                           Advani for field assistance.
           distribution and abundance of this fish (Hamilton & Choat,
           ; Munoz et al., ).                                                             Author contributions Study design, data collection and writing:
                                                                                                  VP; assistance with writing and preparation of map: TW; data
               The current potential threats to B. muricatum in the
                                                                                                  analysis: AM.
           Andaman and Nicobar Islands include incidental catch by
           fishers and degradation of coral reef habitats. Protected                              Conflicts of interest None.
           area designations and threatened species legislation are
           effective only if social conditions also encourage self-                               Ethical standards Nicobarese are a Scheduled Tribe of India, and
           regulation (Sawchuk et al., ). Although the present                                entry into the islands is regulated by the Andaman & Nicobar
           protected areas are supporting higher abundances of B.                                 Islands Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation 1956. We obtained
           muricatum, fishing and benthic degradation could poten-                                the requisite Tribal Area Entry Permits, to land and conduct research,
                                                                                                  from the Department of Tribal Welfare and District Commissioner’s
           tially result in future declines. We recommend extensive
                                                                                                  office at Port Blair. During each visit we also obtained permission to
           long-term population studies of B. muricatum in the archi-                             conduct research from the Chief Captain of the village and
           pelago, a regional Red List assessment for the species and                             Chairperson of the Tribal Council of the area. We obtained all requisite
           inclusion in the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act . As                             clearances from the Nature Conservation Foundation’s Institutional
           reef fishery is growing, it will be necessary to implement reg-                        ethical committee and from the doctoral research committee of
                                                                                                  Marurai Kamaraj University prior to conducting fieldwork.
           ulations to avoid population declines, e.g. a ban on night
           fishing for B. muricatum. The latter would not compromise
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https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318000376
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