Bluestripe snapper
Encyclopedia
The bluestripe snapper, Lutjanus kasmira, (also known as the bluestripe sea perch and the blue-line snapper) is a common species
of marine
fish
of the snapper family
Lutjanidae
. The bluestripe snapper is one of the most widespread of the snappers, inhabiting a range from the Red Sea
south to Madagascar
and east to India
, Asia
, Indonesia
, Australia
and a number of Pacific Islands
including Hawaii
.
The species is so named due to its distinctive colouration, which consists of a bright yellow body overlain by narrow horizontal
electric blue
stripes. The bluestripe snapper is primarily a reef
dweller living in shallow coast
al areas to reefs up to 265 metres (869.4 ft) deep, consuming a range of fish
, cephalopod
s and crustacean
s. Often schooling
while juveniles, the adults tend to be solitary and reach a maximum known length of 40 centimetres (15.7 in).
in the genus
Lutjanus, which is part of the snapper family Lutjanidae
. The Lutjanus falls into the subfamily Lutjaninae. The Lutjanidae are Perciformes
in the suborder Percoidei
.
The species was first scientifically described by Swedish
naturalist
Peter Forsskål
in 1775 under the name Sciaena kasmira, with the holotype
specimen
taken from "Arabia", possibly the Persian Gulf
. Forsskål re examined the fish and determined that he had initially misassigned it, and put it in the genus Lutjanus, creating the new combination Lutjanus kasmira. After Forsskål, naturalists tried to reclassify the species, with Cuvier proposing Diacope octolineata , Lesson Mesoprion etaape and Bleeker Mesoprion pomacanthus for the species. These are all considered junior synonyms under the ICZN
naming rules.
The common name
s of Lutjanus kasmira are descriptive in nature, with adjective
s such as bluestripe, blue-banded and blouband commonly used in front of generic names such as 'snapper' and 'sea perch'. There are a large number of local names used for the species, stemming from the fish's wide range
.
profile of the head
steeply sloped, having a well-developed preopercular
notch and knob. Identifying morphological
features include the number of gill raker
s on lower limb of the first arch, which number 13 or 14, with the total rakers on the first arch numbering 20 to 22. The dorsal fin
consists of 10 spines anterior to 14 or 15 soft rays, while the anal fin has 3 spines and 7 or 8 soft rays. The pectoral fins have 15 or 16 rays, with the caudal fin being slightly emarginate. The row of scales on the back rise obliquely above the lateral line
, which contains 48 to 51 scales
. The species reaches a maximum length of 40 centimetres (15.7 in).
The color
is probably the most diagnostic feature of the fish, especially when alive or fresh from the water. The back and sides of the fish are bright yellow
, with the lower sides and underside of head fading to white. Four bright blue
stripes run longitudinally
on the side of the fish, with several faint greyish stripes on lowermost part of sides. All fins are yellow.
The bluestripe snapper is one of the most widespread species of the Lutjanidae, ranging from the coast of Egypt
bordering the Red Sea
, south to Madagascar
and east to India
, China
, South East Asia, Australia
and a number of Pacific Islands
.
Like many snappers, it inhabits coral reef
s, occurring in both shallow lagoon
s and on outer reef slopes to depths of at least 60 metres (196.9 ft), at depths reaching {m to ft|180}} at the Marquesas Islands
and 265 metres (869.4 ft) at the Red Sea. In Hawaii they spend some time over seagrass
and sandy substrates. They frequently gather in large aggregations around coral
formations, cave
s or wreck
s during daylight hours.
The preferred habitat
of the species changes with age, with young fish schooling on sand
y substrates, while larger fish are more solitary, and inhabit deep reefs.
, Mulloidichthys mimicus, whose colouration nearly exactly matches that of the snapper. The goatfish school alongside the snapper, with this behavior attributed to predatory protection. The goatfish are presumably a more preferred prey than bluestripe snapper.
, feeding on fish
es, shrimp
s, crab
s, stomatopods, cephalopod
s and planktonic crustaceans, as well as plant
and algae
material. Diet varies with age, location and the prevalent prey items locally.
at around 20 to 25 cm (7.9 to 9.8 in). Spawning
occurs throughout most of the year in lower latitude
s with peak activity reported for November and December in the Andaman Sea
. Its egg
s measure from 0.78 to 0.85 mm (0.0307086614173228 to 0.0334645669291339 in) in diameter
and hatch when temperatures reach 22 to 25 °C (71.6 to 77 F).
's Division of Fish and Game conducted marine
fauna
surveys and found the Hawaiian ichthyofauna
was dominated by herbivorous fishes which they concluded were "a useless end in the food chain". Unlike many Pacific Islands
, Hawaii lacked any fish from the Serranidae
or Lutjanidae
family, so to increase recreational and commercial food fishing
opportunities, and fill a perceived 'vacant ecological niche
', collections of eleven species of snappers and groupers were imported from Mexico
, Kiribati
, the Marquesas Islands and Moorea
and introduced to Hawaii. Only three species thrived, dominated by the bluestripe snapper, now occupying many of the Hawaiian Islands.
In the following years, fishers and ecologists raised concerns that the snapper would out-compete
other fish for space and food, as well as prey upon them. Scientific investigation has not been able to find evidence to support these claims with respect to competition for food or predation. Snappers may be competitively dominant over native yellow-fin goatfish
, Mulloidichthys
vanicolensis, for sheltering space on the reef. This is likely only the case in situations where both are present in high densities.
A parasitic nematode
, Spirocamallanus istiblenni, may have been introduced to Hawaiian waters when the fish were released. The addition of this parasite may have impacted native fishes, which may not have been subject to the species before the introduction of L. kasmira.
The species has also failed to become as a food fish
and commercial
resource for the islands, because of low market prices. Since it competes with more commercially valuable fish, most fishers view it as a pest. Since 2008, Hawaii has conducted a series of spearfishing
contests that targeted blue-stripes, along with Blue-spotted Grouper
s and black tail snappers with the intent of removing these fish from Hawaiian waters.
ed fresh, and is common in the markets of many countries. It is one of the principal species in the Hawaiian handline fishery, but as noted above, it fetches low prices at market.
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
of the snapper family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Lutjanidae
Lutjanidae
Snappers are a family of perciform fish, mainly marine but with some members inhabiting estuaries, feeding in freshwater. Some are important food fish. One of the best known is the red snapper....
. The bluestripe snapper is one of the most widespread of the snappers, inhabiting a range from the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
south to Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
and east to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and a number of Pacific Islands
Pacific Islands
The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....
including Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
.
The species is so named due to its distinctive colouration, which consists of a bright yellow body overlain by narrow horizontal
Horizontal plane
In geometry, physics, astronomy, geography, and related sciences, a plane is said to be horizontal at a given point if it is perpendicular to the gradient of the gravity field at that point— in other words, if apparent gravity makes a plumb bob hang perpendicular to the plane at that point.In...
electric blue
Electric blue (color)
Electric blue is a color close to cyan that is a representation of the color of lightning, an electric spark, and argon signs; it is named after the ionized air glow produced during electrical discharges....
stripes. The bluestripe snapper is primarily a reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
dweller living in shallow coast
Coast
A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...
al areas to reefs up to 265 metres (869.4 ft) deep, consuming a range of fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, cephalopod
Cephalopod
A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda . These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot...
s and crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s. Often schooling
Shoaling and schooling
In biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are said to be shoaling , and if, in addition, the group is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner, they are said to be schooling . In common usage, the terms are sometimes used rather loosely...
while juveniles, the adults tend to be solitary and reach a maximum known length of 40 centimetres (15.7 in).
Taxonomy
The bluestripe snapper is classifiedBiological classification
Biological classification, or scientific classification in biology, is a method to group and categorize organisms by biological type, such as genus or species. Biological classification is part of scientific taxonomy....
in the genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Lutjanus, which is part of the snapper family Lutjanidae
Lutjanidae
Snappers are a family of perciform fish, mainly marine but with some members inhabiting estuaries, feeding in freshwater. Some are important food fish. One of the best known is the red snapper....
. The Lutjanus falls into the subfamily Lutjaninae. The Lutjanidae are Perciformes
Perciformes
The Perciformes, also called the Percomorphi or Acanthopteri, is one of the largest orders of vertebrates, containing about 40% of all bony fish. Perciformes means perch-like. They belong to the class of ray-finned fish and comprise over 7,000 species found in almost all aquatic environments...
in the suborder Percoidei
Percoidei
Percoidei is one of eighteen suborders of bony fish in the order Perciformes. Many commercially harvested fish species are contained in this suborder, including the snappers, jacks, whitings, groupers, bass, perches and porgies.-Divisions:...
.
The species was first scientifically described by Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
Peter Forsskål
Peter Forsskål
Peter Forsskål, sometimes spelled Pehr Forsskål, Peter Forskaol, Petrus Forskål or Pehr Forsskåhl, was a Swedish explorer, orientalist, naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus.-Early life:...
in 1775 under the name Sciaena kasmira, with the holotype
Holotype
A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...
specimen
Specimen
A specimen is a portion/quantity of material for use in testing, examination, or study.BiologyA laboratory specimen is an individual animal, part of an animal, a plant, part of a plant, or a microorganism, used as a representative to study the properties of the whole population of that species or...
taken from "Arabia", possibly the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
. Forsskål re examined the fish and determined that he had initially misassigned it, and put it in the genus Lutjanus, creating the new combination Lutjanus kasmira. After Forsskål, naturalists tried to reclassify the species, with Cuvier proposing Diacope octolineata , Lesson Mesoprion etaape and Bleeker Mesoprion pomacanthus for the species. These are all considered junior synonyms under the ICZN
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals...
naming rules.
The common name
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...
s of Lutjanus kasmira are descriptive in nature, with adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s such as bluestripe, blue-banded and blouband commonly used in front of generic names such as 'snapper' and 'sea perch'. There are a large number of local names used for the species, stemming from the fish's wide range
Range (biology)
In biology, the range or distribution of a species is the geographical area within which that species can be found. Within that range, dispersion is variation in local density.The term is often qualified:...
.
Description
The body is moderately deep in profile, with the dorsalDorsum (biology)
In anatomy, the dorsum is the upper side of animals that typically run, fly, or swim in a horizontal position, and the back side of animals that walk upright. In vertebrates the dorsum contains the backbone. The term dorsal refers to anatomical structures that are either situated toward or grow...
profile of the head
Head
In anatomy, the head of an animal is the rostral part that usually comprises the brain, eyes, ears, nose and mouth . Some very simple animals may not have a head, but many bilaterally symmetric forms do....
steeply sloped, having a well-developed preopercular
Operculum (fish)
The operculum of a bony fish is the hard bony flap covering and protecting the gills. In most fish, the rear edge of the operculum roughly marks the division between the head and the body....
notch and knob. Identifying morphological
Morphology (biology)
In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....
features include the number of gill raker
Gill raker
Gill rakers in fish are bony or cartilaginous processes that project from the branchial arch and are involved with filter feeding tiny prey. They are not to be confused with the gill filaments that compose the bony part of the gill. Rakers are usually present in two rows, projecting from both the...
s on lower limb of the first arch, which number 13 or 14, with the total rakers on the first arch numbering 20 to 22. The dorsal fin
Dorsal fin
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...
consists of 10 spines anterior to 14 or 15 soft rays, while the anal fin has 3 spines and 7 or 8 soft rays. The pectoral fins have 15 or 16 rays, with the caudal fin being slightly emarginate. The row of scales on the back rise obliquely above the lateral line
Lateral line
The lateral line is a sense organ in aquatic organisms , used to detect movement and vibration in the surrounding water. Lateral lines are usually visible as faint lines running lengthwise down each side, from the vicinity of the gill covers to the base of the tail...
, which contains 48 to 51 scales
Scale (zoology)
In most biological nomenclature, a scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of an animal's skin to provide protection. In lepidopteran species, scales are plates on the surface of the insect wing, and provide coloration...
. The species reaches a maximum length of 40 centimetres (15.7 in).
The color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
is probably the most diagnostic feature of the fish, especially when alive or fresh from the water. The back and sides of the fish are bright yellow
Yellow
Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...
, with the lower sides and underside of head fading to white. Four bright blue
Blue
Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...
stripes run longitudinally
Anatomical terms of location
Standard anatomical terms of location are designations employed in science that deal with the anatomy of animals to avoid ambiguities that might otherwise arise. They are not language-specific, and thus require no translation...
on the side of the fish, with several faint greyish stripes on lowermost part of sides. All fins are yellow.
Range and habitat
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
bordering the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
, south to Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
and east to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, South East Asia, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and a number of Pacific Islands
Pacific Islands
The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....
.
Like many snappers, it inhabits coral reef
Coral reef
Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...
s, occurring in both shallow lagoon
Lagoon
A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...
s and on outer reef slopes to depths of at least 60 metres (196.9 ft), at depths reaching {m to ft|180}} at the Marquesas Islands
Marquesas Islands
The Marquesas Islands enana and Te Fenua `Enata , both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W...
and 265 metres (869.4 ft) at the Red Sea. In Hawaii they spend some time over seagrass
Seagrass
Seagrasses are flowering plants from one of four plant families , all in the order Alismatales , which grow in marine, fully saline environments.-Ecology:...
and sandy substrates. They frequently gather in large aggregations around coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
formations, cave
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
s or wreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
s during daylight hours.
The preferred habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
of the species changes with age, with young fish schooling on sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
y substrates, while larger fish are more solitary, and inhabit deep reefs.
Ecology
The bluestripe snapper is part of an unusual mimicry relationship with the goatfishGoatfish
Goatfishes are tropical marine perciform fish of the family Mullidae. Seldom found in brackish waters, goatfish are most associated with the reefs of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans...
, Mulloidichthys mimicus, whose colouration nearly exactly matches that of the snapper. The goatfish school alongside the snapper, with this behavior attributed to predatory protection. The goatfish are presumably a more preferred prey than bluestripe snapper.
Diet
The bluestripe snapper has a varied dietDiet (nutrition)
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word diet, it is often implied the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management...
, feeding on fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
es, shrimp
Shrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
s, crab
Crab
True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...
s, stomatopods, cephalopod
Cephalopod
A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda . These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot...
s and planktonic crustaceans, as well as plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
and algae
Algae
Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...
material. Diet varies with age, location and the prevalent prey items locally.
Reproduction
The bluestripe snapper reaches sexual maturitySexual maturity
Sexual maturity is the age or stage when an organism can reproduce. It is sometimes considered synonymous with adulthood, though the two are distinct...
at around 20 to 25 cm (7.9 to 9.8 in). Spawning
Spawn (biology)
Spawn refers to the eggs and sperm released or deposited, usually into water, by aquatic animals. As a verb, spawn refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, also called spawning...
occurs throughout most of the year in lower latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
s with peak activity reported for November and December in the Andaman Sea
Andaman Sea
The Andaman Sea or Burma Sea is a body of water to the southeast of the Bay of Bengal, south of Burma, west of Thailand and east of the Andaman Islands, India; it is part of the Indian Ocean....
. Its egg
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
s measure from 0.78 to 0.85 mm (0.0307086614173228 to 0.0334645669291339 in) in diameter
Diameter
In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle. The diameters are the longest chords of the circle...
and hatch when temperatures reach 22 to 25 °C (71.6 to 77 F).
Introduction to Hawaii
In the 1950s, investigators from the HawaiiTerritory of Hawaii
The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 7, 1898, until August 21, 1959, when its territory, with the exception of Johnston Atoll, was admitted to the Union as the fiftieth U.S. state, the State of Hawaii.The U.S...
's Division of Fish and Game conducted marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
surveys and found the Hawaiian ichthyofauna
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
was dominated by herbivorous fishes which they concluded were "a useless end in the food chain". Unlike many Pacific Islands
Pacific Islands
The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....
, Hawaii lacked any fish from the Serranidae
Serranidae
Serranidae is a large family of fishes, belonging to the order Perciformes. The family contains about 450 species of serranids in 64 genera, including the sea basses and the groupers...
or Lutjanidae
Lutjanidae
Snappers are a family of perciform fish, mainly marine but with some members inhabiting estuaries, feeding in freshwater. Some are important food fish. One of the best known is the red snapper....
family, so to increase recreational and commercial food fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
opportunities, and fill a perceived 'vacant ecological niche
Ecological niche
In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem to each other; e.g. a dolphin could potentially be in another ecological niche from one that travels in a different pod if the members of these pods utilize significantly different food...
', collections of eleven species of snappers and groupers were imported from Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Kiribati
Kiribati
Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population exceeds just over 100,000 , and is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, straddling the...
, the Marquesas Islands and Moorea
Moorea
Moʻorea is a high island in French Polynesia, part of the Society Islands, 17 km northwest of Tahiti. Its position is . Moʻorea means "yellow lizard" in Tahitian...
and introduced to Hawaii. Only three species thrived, dominated by the bluestripe snapper, now occupying many of the Hawaiian Islands.
In the following years, fishers and ecologists raised concerns that the snapper would out-compete
Interspecific competition
Interspecific competition, in ecology, is a form of competition in which individuals of different species compete for the same resource in an ecosystem...
other fish for space and food, as well as prey upon them. Scientific investigation has not been able to find evidence to support these claims with respect to competition for food or predation. Snappers may be competitively dominant over native yellow-fin goatfish
Goatfish
Goatfishes are tropical marine perciform fish of the family Mullidae. Seldom found in brackish waters, goatfish are most associated with the reefs of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans...
, Mulloidichthys
Mulloidichthys
Mulloidichthys or Goatfishes is a tropical marine genus of perciform fish of the family Mullidae. Occurs mainly in coral and rocky reefs of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. 6 species are recognized in this genus.-Species:...
vanicolensis, for sheltering space on the reef. This is likely only the case in situations where both are present in high densities.
A parasitic nematode
Nematode
The nematodes or roundworms are the most diverse phylum of pseudocoelomates, and one of the most diverse of all animals. Nematode species are very difficult to distinguish; over 28,000 have been described, of which over 16,000 are parasitic. It has been estimated that the total number of nematode...
, Spirocamallanus istiblenni, may have been introduced to Hawaiian waters when the fish were released. The addition of this parasite may have impacted native fishes, which may not have been subject to the species before the introduction of L. kasmira.
The species has also failed to become as a food fish
Fish (food)
Fish is a food consumed by many species, including humans. The word "fish" refers to both the animal and to the food prepared from it. Fish has been an important source of protein for humans throughout recorded history.-Terminology:...
and commercial
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
resource for the islands, because of low market prices. Since it competes with more commercially valuable fish, most fishers view it as a pest. Since 2008, Hawaii has conducted a series of spearfishing
Spearfishing
Spearfishing is an ancient method of fishing that has been used throughout the world for millennia. Early civilizations were familiar with the custom of spearing fish from rivers and streams using sharpened sticks....
contests that targeted blue-stripes, along with Blue-spotted Grouper
Blue-Spotted Grouper
Cephalopholis argus, also known as: Blue-spotted Grouper, Argus Grouper, Peacock Hind, Peacock Grouper or Peacock Rockcod is a fish from the Indo-Pacific which is variously a commercial gamefish, an invasive species and occasionally an aquarium resident...
s and black tail snappers with the intent of removing these fish from Hawaiian waters.
Commercial fishery
The bluestripe snapper is commonly taken throughout its range by handlines, traps and gill nets. It is usually marketMarket
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
ed fresh, and is common in the markets of many countries. It is one of the principal species in the Hawaiian handline fishery, but as noted above, it fetches low prices at market.