231 
NOAA 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
Fishery Bulletin 
** established 1881 ■*?. 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Acoustic tagging and monitoring of cultured and 
wild juvenile crimson jobfish {Pristipomoides 
filamentosus ) in a nursery habitat 
Email address for contact author: frank.parrish@noaa.gov 
1 Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center 
NOAA Daniel K. Inouye Regional Center 
1845 Wasp Boulevard, Building 176 
Honolulu, Hawaii 96818 
2 School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology 
University of Hawaii at Manoa 
1000 Pope Road 
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 
Abstract—The movements of cul- 
tured (n = 18) and wild (n= 28) juve- 
nile crimson jobfish (Pristipomoides 
filamentosus ) are reported for a 
known nursery off windward Oahu, 
Hawaii. The 2 batches of fish were 
tagged with acoustic transmitters 
in separate years (2006, 2007) and 
monitored with a receiver array for 
up to 10 weeks. Of the cultured fish, 
75% left the nursery within 3 days, 
more than twice the exit rate for 
wild fish tagged the following year. 
The number of wild fish detected 
peaked during daylight hours, indi- 
cating that the fish were diurnally 
active. Tidally driven changes in bot- 
tom temperature did not explain the 
behavioral patterns of the wild fish 
that remained in the nursery for 
multiple weeks. Additional receiv- 
ers deployed on the slope adjacent 
to the nursery detected that two- 
thirds of the wild fish departed from 
the nursery after a short period 
(mean: 1.2 days [SD 1.69]), by cross- 
ing areas with soft substrate similar 
to that of the nursery. In contrast, 
the fish that exited by rock ledges 
stayed near the rock ledges longer 
(mean: 13.3 days [SD 20.9]). These 
movement patterns provide insight 
into the early life history of this 
deepwater snapper and a glimpse 
at some of the challenges for future 
stock enhancement efforts. 
Manuscript submitted 18 December 2013. 
Manuscript accepted 13 March 2015. 
Fish. Bull. 113:231-241 (2015). 
doi: 10.7755/FB. 113.3.1 
Online publication date: 7 April 2015. 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Frank A. Parrish (contact author ) 1 
Nicholas T. Hayman 1 
Christopher Kelley 2 
Raymond C. Boland 1 
Eteline snappers compose an impor- 
tant, high-value component of tropi- 
cal insular fisheries throughout the 
Pacific and Indian Oceans, and catch 
of sizeable portions is exported from 
their country or archipelago of origin. 
The crimson jobfish ( Pristipomoides 
filamentosus), also known as the 
pink snapper, composes more than a 
quarter of the commercial landings 
by weight of the Hawaiian bottom- 
fish fishery (Brodziak et ah, 2011). 
In addition, this species is thought 
to account for roughly the same per- 
centage of bottomfish recreational 
landings, which, when added to com- 
mercial landings, would increase 
the overall catch of this snapper by 
a factor of 2-3 (Zeller et ah, 2008). 
Because of the high market value 
of crimson jobfish, scientists of the 
University of Hawaii spent a consid- 
erable effort during 1997-2006 at- 
tempting to breed this species in cap- 
tivity for potential use in aquaculture 
and stock enhancement. They were 
successful at maintaining broodstock, 
producing larvae, and rearing fish to 
20-24 cm in fork length (FL) (C. Kel- 
ley, unpubl. data), which is similar 
to the size of juveniles that occur in 
nearshore nursery habitats. 
Culturing large numbers of juve- 
niles is not yet possible, but if it is 
achieved, they hypothetically could 
be grown for harvest in oceanic cages 
or used to enhance wild populations 
through releases to known nursery 
grounds as is done with other fish- 
eries species (Bell et ah, 2008). Al- 
though these types of enhancement 
activities have been undertaken for 
freshwater and anadromous species, 
their use in marine systems is more 
recent. Notable examples in Hawaii 
include hatchery releases of striped 
mullet ( Mugil cephalus) (Leber and 
Arce, 1996) and Pacific threadfin 
( Polydactylus sexfilis) (Friedlander 
and Ziemann, 2003). 
In order to release cultured fish 
into the wild for the purposes of 
stock enhancement, researchers will 
need to know where to deploy the 
fish and how they will behave. Ide- 
ally, cultured juvenile fish would be 
released in a place suitable for that 
stage of its life history. Larvae of 
eteline lutjanid snappers are known 
to reside in the plankton until they 
