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 .                                                             tion trends (Aswani & Hamilton, ; Lavides et al., ;

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2         V. Patankar et al.

             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

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Bumphead parrotfish   3

                                                                                                                                    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

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4         V. Patankar et al.

             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

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Bumphead parrotfish         5

           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, Page 5 of 8 © 2019 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605318000376
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6         V. Patankar et al.

             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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                                                                                                              Oryx, Page 8 of 8 © 2019 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605318000376
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