International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.33, 316-343
316
Research Article Open Access
A New Approach to Mixed Stock Analysis that Informs on the Management and
Conservation of Hawksbill in the Wider Caribbean: the Case of the Legal
Fishery in Jardines del Rey, Cuba
E. Pérez-Bermúdez
1
, Ariel Ruiz Urquiola
2
, L. Rebordinos-González
3
, G. Espinosa-López
1
, I. Lee-González
4
, B.L.J. Petric
5
1 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biology, University of Havana: 25 Street #455, Plaza de la Revolución, La Habana, Cuba
2 Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115,
Berlin, Germany
3 Laboratory of Genetics, Faculty of Sea and Environmental Sciences, University of Cadiz, 11510 Puerto Real, Cadiz, Spain
4 Camagüey’s Industrial Fishery Enterprise (EPICAM): Albaisa #191, Nuevitas, Camagüey, Cuba
5 Toronto District School Board, 5050 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario M2N 5N8, Canada
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.33 doi
Received: 12 Jun., 2017
Accepted: 05 Jul., 2017
Published: 26 Aug., 2017
Copyright © 2017
Pérez-Bermúdez et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Pérez-Bermúdez E., Urquiola A.R., Rebordinos-González L., Espinosa-López G., Lee-González I., and Petric B.L.J., 2017, A new approach to mixed stock
analysis that informs on the management and conservation of hawksbill in the wider Caribbean: the case of the legal fishery in Jardines del Rey, Cuba,
International Journal of Marine Science, 7(33): 316-343 (doi
Abstract
Researchers have used mixed stock analysis (MSA) to infer the relevance of rookeries in sea turtle aggregations for
conservation/management purposes. However, their approaches and assumptions are not always homogeneous or realistic. We
assayed new MSAs using the annual haplotype frequencies of aggregations and rookeries of
Eretmochelys imbricata
in the Wider
Caribbean (WC), and the population size was selected according to the sampler year most relevant on the maturity of the aggregation.
The MSA results obtained using this approach were compared with MSAs executed with grouped haplotype frequency data as has
been the most common practice in the literature. The relationship of Jardines del Rey (JR) legal fishing aggregation (Cuba) to other
aggregations and rookeries in the region was analyzed with data collected in 2004 to 2006 and during the 1990s. The JR non-adult
fishing ground presented high genetic diversity and Mexican rookery was identified as the primary contributor using haplotypes at
the 384 bp length and each MSA approach that was used, congruent with the demographic growth reported for this rookery. Using
haplotypes at the 740 bp length, the primary contributor to non-adult turtles at JR differed according to the MSA approach used,
alternating between Mona Island and the Mexican rookery. Jardines del Rey is a route usually taken by non-adult hawksbills of
diverse origin, reflecting the need to strengthen the sampling and conservation efforts on the WC rookeries with rare or orphan
haplotypes, and to warn about the impact of the fishery occurring in similar areas. Likewise, adult turtles from JR were highly diverse
and from multiple origins, with this area serving as a migratory corridor for first breeders (females) to many WC breeding grounds.
Caution should be employed in any MSA approach due to the influence effect of sequence length, selection of the rookery size and
haplotype frequencies, as well as other assumptions that may affect the estimated contributions.
Keywords
Eretmochelys imbricata
; Mixed stock analysis; Wider Caribbean; Jardines del Rey; Rookery size; Maturation category
Introduction
Understanding the connectivity between breeding and feeding grounds is crucial for the management and
conservation of migratory species (Harrison and Bjorndal, 2006). In marine species with high dispersion
capability, it is challenging to obtain this information due to the absence of apparent physical barriers at wide
scales of distribution (Shamblin et al., 2012). In particular, sea turtles have a complex life cycle characterized by a
series of ecological transitions associated with continuous movement and habitat changes throughout their
different life stages (Bjorndal and Bolten, 1988; Diez et al., 2003; Chaieb et al., 2012). In these species, once
sexual maturity is reached turtles begin periodic migrations between feeding and breeding/nesting areas, which
are sometimes separated by thousands of kilometers (Miller, 1997), with females (Carr, 1967), and to a lesser
extent males (Velez-Zuazo et al., 2008), exhibiting phylopatric or "natal homing" behavior. This has been verified
using flipper tags (Limpus et al., 1992; Horrocks et al., 2011), satellite tracking (Luschi et al., 2006; van Dam et
al., 2008; Godley et al., 2010) and mtDNA markers (Bass et al., 1996; Bowen et al., 1996), in which has
demonstrated significant differences in the mtDNA haplotype frequencies among nesting populations (Bowen and
