Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T18:21:09.323Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reef fish mass mortality event in an isolated island off Brazil, with notes on recent similar events at Ascension, St Helena and Maldives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2010

Hudson T. Pinheiro ,
João L. Gasparini  and
Jean-Christophe Joyeux
Hudson T. Pinheiro*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Oceanografia e Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Avenida F. Ferrari, 514, Goiabeiras, Vitória, ES, Brazil, 29075-910
João L. Gasparini
Affiliation:
Departamento de Oceanografia e Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Avenida F. Ferrari, 514, Goiabeiras, Vitória, ES, Brazil, 29075-910
Jean-Christophe Joyeux
Affiliation:
Departamento de Oceanografia e Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Avenida F. Ferrari, 514, Goiabeiras, Vitória, ES, Brazil, 29075-910
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: H.T. Pinheiro, Departamento de Oceanografia e Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Avenida F. Ferrari, 514, Goiabeiras, Vitória, ES, Brazil, 29075-910 email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Events of mass mortality of marine fish have been reported to occur world wide, mainly in coastal regions of continental shelves. Here we report an event at Trindade Island, located 1160 km from the Brazilian coast. Melichthys niger was the species most commonly seen affected. Twenty-four other species were found washed ashore. Victims were demersal (72% of species), pelagic (20%) and benthonic species (8%), comprising eight trophic categories. There is evidence that fish kills have occurred at Trindade since at least the 1990s. Mortality events mainly involving primarily Balistidae (Trindade, Maldives and Ascension), Chaetodontidae (St Helena) and Serranidae (Ascension) have been reported for other isolated oceanic localities with low human occupation. It is possible that blooms of toxic algae, under certain conditions cause cascading intoxication along the trophic web. A second hypothesis is that seasonal upwelling events of anoxic or hypoxic waters may be implicated.

Keywords

fish killdead zoneTrindade Islandsouthern AtlanticBalistidae
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 3 , June 2010 , e47
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bakun, A. (1990) Global climate change and intensification of coastal ocean upwelling. Science 247, 198–201.Google Scholar
Burgess, S.C. (2006) Algal blooms on coral reefs with low anthropogenic impact in the Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs 25, 390.Google Scholar
Feistel, R., Ragen, E. and Grant, K. (2003) Climatic changes in the subtropical Southeast Atlantic: the St Helena Island Climate Index (1893–1999). Progress in Oceanography 59, 321–337.Google Scholar
Gasparini, J.L. (2004) Ilha da Trindade e Arquipélago Martin Vaz: Pedaços de Vitória no azul atlântico. Vitória: GSA.Google Scholar
Gasparini, J.L. and Floeter, S.R. (2001) The shore fishes of Trindade Island, western South Atlantic. Journal of Natural History 35, 1639–1656.Google Scholar
Horner, R.A., Garrison, D.L. and Plumley, F.G. (1997) Harmful algal blooms and red tide problems on the U.S west coast. Limnology and Oceanography 42, 1076–1088.Google Scholar
Hsieh, H.L., Hsien, Y.-L., Jeng, M.S., Tsai, W.S., Su, W.C. and Chen, C.A. (2008) Tropical fishes killed by the cold. Coral Reefs 27, 599.Google Scholar
Justić, D., Rabalais, N.N. and Turner, R.E. (1996) Effects of climate change on hypoxia in coastal waters: a doubled CO2 scenario for the northern Gulf of Mexico. Limnology and Oceanography 41, 992–1003.Google Scholar
Littler, M.M., Littler, D.S., Lapointe, P.E. and Barile, P.J. (2006) Toxic Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) associated with groundwater conduits in the Bahamas. Coral Reefs 25, 186.Google Scholar
Mohrholz, V., Bartholomae, C.H., van der Plas, A.K. and Lass, H.U. (2008) The seasonal variability of the northern Benguela undercurrent and its relation to the oxygen budget on the shelf. Continental and Shelf Research 28, 424–441.Google Scholar
Naeem, S. and Sattar, S.A. (2007) A compilation of reported fish kills in the Maldives (July–December, 2007). Malé, Maldives: Marine Research Centre, 32 pp. Available at http://www.mrc.gov.mv/index.php/publications/Google Scholar
Siung-Chang, A.M. and Lum-Kong, A. (2001) Possible links between reef-fish mortalities in the southeast Caribbean and South American river discharge (July–October 1999). Bulletin of Marine Science 68, 342–350.Google Scholar