Coral reef fish hatchlings dispersed by ocean currents are able to make their way back to their home reefs again to spawn, according to a ground-breaking study published Thursday in the journal Science.
The study, whose findings are considered a major discovery for fish conservation biology, was conducted by an international team of scientists from Australia, France, and the U.S. using a novel tagging method to track two populations of fish, including the endearing orange, black, and white reef-dwelling clownfish made famous in the movie "Finding Nemo."
The study took place on coral reefs in a marine protected area in Papua New Guinea. Scientists tested a new method to trace fish from birth to spawning and detect the percentage of fish hatched on one reef that return there to spawn. The techniques used in this study can reveal the extent to which fish populations on separate reefs are isolated breeding populations, or connected by fish movements. Such information is critical to effective management of reef fish populations.
Following two fish species, the clownfish (Amphiprion percula) and the vagabond butterflyfish (Chaetodon vagabundus), the scientists found that the young of both species made it back to their home reef about 60 percent of the time -- a surprising result for fish larvae that had dispersed from a small reef habitat into a large area.
"If we understand how fish larvae disperse, it will enable better design of marine protected areas, and this will help in the rebuilding of threatened fish populations," said one of the authors of the Science article.
The study's results highlight three notable achievements. This is the first time scientists have successfully used a new internal tagging method in the field, as well as in the lab. It is the first larval tagging study of a pelagic (open water-swimming) spawning fish. It is also the first comparison between two fish species with different reproductive strategies and dispersal patterns.
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