417 



Biology of queen snapper 



(Etelis oculatus: Lutjanidae) in the Caribbean 



Bertrand Gobert 



Institut de Recherche pour 

 le Developpement (IRD) 

 Technopole Brest-lroise 

 BP 70 



29280 Plouzane, France 

 E-mail address: gobertra) ird.fr 



Alain Guillou 



Institut Francais de Recherche 



pour I'Exploitation de la Mer (Ifremer) 

 Boulevard Jean Monnet 

 BP 171 

 34203 Sete Cedex, France 



Peter Murray 



Organization of Eastern Caribbean States 



(OECS) 

 Environment and Sustainable 



Development Unit 

 The Morne 

 POBox 1383 

 Castries, Saint Lucia 



Patrick Berthou 



Institut Francais de Recherche 



pour I'Exploitation de la Mer (Ifremer) 

 BP 70 

 29280 Plouzane, France 



Maria D. Oqueli Turcios 



38, rue Desaix 

 75015 Paris, France 



Ester Lopez 



Departement Halieutique 



Ecole Nationale Supeneure Agronomique de 



Rennes 



65, rue de Saint-Bneuc 



CS 84215 



35042 Rennes Cedex, France 



Pascal Lorance 

 Jerdme Huet 



Institut Francais de Recherche pour 

 I'Exploitation de la Mer (Ifremer) 

 BP 70 

 29280 Plouzane, France 



Nicolas Diaz 



Boyer 



97129 Lamentin 



Guadeloupe, French West Indies 



Paul Gervain 



Rue Authe 2 



Petit Pans 



97100 Basse Terre 



Guadeloupe, French West Indies 



tation of the queen snapper is poorly 

 documented, and very few detailed 

 catch statistics are available; in all 

 cases, the amounts landed in each 

 country are small (probably not ex- 

 ceeding a few tens of tons per year), 

 but the potential production of these 

 resources has never been estimated. 



Owing to the depth of its habitat 

 and to the relatively small economic 

 importance of the fisheries for queen 

 snapper on the local scale, very little 

 is known about the biology of E. ocu- 

 latus. It is generally cited in species 

 checklists or in general descriptions 

 of deepwater fisheries. Very few stud- 

 ies actually have focused on the spe- 

 cies itself (Murray, 1989; Murray and 

 Charles, 1991; Murray et al., 1992; 

 Murray and Moore, 1992; Murray 

 and Neilson, 2002). 



The objective of this study is to 

 present new information about the 

 biology of E. oculatus, obtained from 

 fishing experiments undertaken since 

 the 1980s in the French West Indies 

 (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint- 

 Barthelemy, and the French part of 

 Saint-Martin), Dominica and Saint- 

 Lucia, and from a study conducted 

 in the late 1990s on the artisanal 

 and semi-industrial fisheries off the 

 Caribbean coast of Honduras. 



Material and methods 



Areas studied 



The data were collected from various 

 research projects (Fig. 1 and Table 1): 



The queen snapper (Etelis oculatus) 

 is among the deepest dwelling spe- 

 cies of the family Lutjanidae, and the 

 only Atlantic species of Etelis. Its dis- 

 tribution covers the tropical western 

 Atlantic Ocean, from North Carolina 

 to the eastern tip of Brazil, at depths 

 of 130 to 450 m (Allen, 1985). 



Although it reaches a large size 

 and presents no risk of ciguatoxicity 

 (Lorance 1 ), the species is exploited by 

 only a few fisheries in the Caribbean. 

 Most often it is only a minor part of 

 the catch of line fisheries that focus 

 on the whole community of deep snap- 

 pers, or on more abundant species 

 such as vermilion snapper (Rhom- 



boplites aurorubens) or silk snapper 

 (Lutjanus vivanus) (e.g., in Venezu- 

 ela: Mendoza and Larez, 1996). In 

 a few cases, however, E. oculatus is 

 specifically sought by fishermen; for 

 example, in Saint-Lucia within a tra- 

 ditional fishery operating during the 

 months when migratory pelagics are 

 not fished (Murray et al, 1992), or in 

 Bermuda where it has been caught 

 irregularly (pulse fishery) since the 

 ban on potfishing (Luckhurst, 1996). 

 Commercial exploitation is only be- 

 ginning in the French West Indies, 

 but is much more developed in Barba- 

 dos (Prescod et al., 1996) and Puerto 

 Rico (Matos-Caraballo, 2000). Exploi- 



1 Lorance, P. 1988. La ciguatoxicite des 

 poissons sur les bancs de Saint-Barthe- 

 lemy. Saint-Martin et Anguilla. Doc. 

 Sci. Pole Caraibe 15, 31 p. [Available 

 from Ifremer, Pointe Fort, 97231 Le 

 Robert, France.] 



Manuscript submitted 16 September 2003 

 to the Scientific Editor's Office. 

 Manuscript approved for publication 

 20 October 2004 by the Scientific Editor. 

 Fish. Bull. 103:417-425 (20051. 



