International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.33, 316-343
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The Wider Caribbean has also been the scene of political conflict in the management of
E. imbricata
. The
majority of WC nations had already abandoned the legal fishery for this species when Cuba permanently closed its
legal fishery in January 2008. In fact, Cuba is the only country that has such a complete temporal series of
morphometric, reproductive, genetic, flipper tags, and catch volume data recorded for decades in a fishery
exclusively for chelonians (Carrillo et al., 1998a; 1999; Díaz-Fernández et al., 1999; Moncada et al., 1999; 2010;
2011; 2012). However, this fishery closed without determining the status of these fishing grounds by contrasting
historical and recent data on morphometry, genetics and reproduction. Our study integrates for the first time these
data belonging to hawksbill harvests during the periods of legal fishery between 2004 and 2006 in Jardines del
Rey (JR), one of the two active fishery sites which continued in the Cuban archipelago after the significant
reduction of this activity in 1994. The present study aims to test if the origins of the hawksbill fishing stock of
Jardines del Rey are plausibly explained when annual haplotype frequencies are assumed, as well as the
population size according to the maturation category. The study goals were 1) to calculate the contributions from
sources to feeding/breeding grounds with emphasis on JR, and following several assumptions such as the selection
of the Nr according to the maturation category of the individuals; 2) to compare these MSAs with those done
following the criteria commonly used in the literature in order to discuss the validity of both approaches; and 3) to
evaluate the relationship among contributions and the maritime distances between rookeries and aggregations.
1 Results
1.1 Genetic composition and diversity in the JR fishing aggregation
From the total number of
E. imbricata
individuals (N = 249) processed in the present study in JR, we obtained 119
sequences at the 740 bp length and identified 17 haplotypes among them (Table 1), some not recorded in the WC
rookeries. The haplotype composition within the 2004-2006 period was independent of the maturation category
(X
2
(df=32)
= 19.32, p = 0.98; Table 1). The EiA11 haplotype was the most abundant among non-adult individuals,
followed by EiA01 and EiA24, EiA23 and EiA41. Among adult males, EiA01 was the most frequent haplotype,
followed by EiA11. Among adult females (AF + BF), haplotypes EiA01 y EiA11 were equally frequent.
Haplotype composition was independent of the fishery year in non-adult individuals (X
2
(df=30)
= 35.74, p =
0.20; Table 1). However, the ratio of EiA01 to EiA11 observed in 2004 was inverted in 2005. The most
diverse year was 2005 with 11 haplotypes detected among non-adult individuals, 9 haplotypes in adult males
and 6 haplotypes in adult females. Year 2006 was a low harvest year with EIA11 moderately represented.
The haplotype composition was also independent of the fishery year among adult males (X
2
(df=18)
= 15.35, p = 0.74;
Table 1). The EiA01 was equally frequent in 2004 and 2005, and EiA11 in 2004. In addition, year 2005 was the
most diverse with most haplotypes poorly represented. Among the adult females (AF+BF) there was also no
annual statistical dependence (X
2
(df=16)
= 23.97, p = 0.1; Table 1). The EiA01 was similarly frequent in 2004 and
2005, whereas EiA11 was more frequent in 2004. Haplotypes EiA23 and EiA24+EiA41 were present only in 2005
and 2004 respectively. Breeding females were mainly distributed in classes IV and III, and in August and
September. Similarly, when comparing the haplotype frequencies of 2004 and 2005 with those of the 1990s from
Díaz-Fernández (1999) for the JR fishing aggregation there was no dependence on maturation categories
(non-adults: X
2
(df=30)
= 32.33, p = 0.31; adults: X
2
(df=26)
= 31.86, p = 0.11).
In non-adult individuals from 2004 to 2006 the haplotype composition per fishery year was independent among
SCL classes (2004: X
2
(df=7)
= 8.14, p = 0.27; 2005: X
2
(df=9)
= 10.24, p = 0.36) as well as by SCL class (class II: X
2
(df=9)
= 14.81, p = 0.06; class III: X
2
(df=7)
= 6.67, p = 0.53). In adult individuals from 2004 to 2006, genetic composition
was independent among SCL classes by sexual class (males: X
2
(df=18)
= 14.56, p = 0.81; females: X
2
(df=18)
= 15.27, p
= 0.75) or among fishery years per SCL class (class II: X
2
(df=4)
= 3.33, p = 1.0; class III: X
2
9= 7.14, p = 0.78; class IV:
X
2
(df=8)
= 3.55, p = 1.0).
Genetic diversity was high in JR fishing aggregation (haplotypes at the 740 bp length) and similarly high within
each maturation category, including adult sexual classes (Table 1). When these diversities were recalculated for
non-adult individuals using haplotypes at the 384 bp length, the values of haplotype (h) and nucleotide (π)
diversities decreased and increased respectively (Table 2). The non-adult individuals of the JR between 2004 and
