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Fishery Bulletin 1 14(1) 
Figure 6 
Interaction between black grouper ( Mycteroperca bonaci) was captured only once in video recordings 
made at Riley’s Hump, Tortugas South Ecological Reserve, Florida Keys, and that interaction is shown 
in these video stills from videos taken at site 12A on 27 April 2010: (A) and (B) a blotch-patterned black 
grouper (right side of figure) approaches a second black grouper from below. (C) The approaching fish 
passes directly beneath the rear portion of the second fish and briefly makes contact, but no additional 
interaction occurs. (D) The 2 fish swim away from each other in opposite directions and a BGV1 call is 
produced a few seconds later. This interaction may have been courtship or territorial associated behavior. 
When the audio and video system was deployed at this site, divers reported seeing several black grouper 
midway in the water column swimming together in a generally circular pattern, similar to behavior ob- 
served in a spawning aggregation documented in Belize. 
and Sedberry (2008) at spawning aggregation sites of 
black grouper in Belize, where these authors also not- 
ed that the blotched-color phase was seen during the 
morning of the day that spawning occurred. 
Sound production in the frequency range of 300-400 
Hz was dominated by the longspine squirrelfish ( Holo - 
centrus rufus). This finding was validated by an analy- 
sis of recordings made with the handheld Sony video 
camera fitted with a hydrophone and also by compari- 
son with descriptions made by Winn et al. (1964). This 
species produced a pulsatile call with received SPLs 
of 6. 0-8.0 dB (re: 1 pPa) above daytime background 
levels. The diel pattern was crepuscular with slightly 
higher SPLs reached during the evening than during 
the morning. Patterns in the SPLs and timing of this 
call type began in early spring and continued through 
late summer and early fall. These patterns were simi- 
lar among sites and between years, and they were not 
associated with a lunar period (Fig. 7). 
Sound production in the frequency range of 500-800 
Hz was also dominated by a pulsatile call, typical of 
the family Pomacentridae and attributed to the bicolor 
damselfish ( Stegastes partitus). Some energy associated 
with this call extended above and below the range of 
500-800 Hz but was minimal by comparison. Sound 
production in this range was considered to be from a 
different source than that of the signal produced in 
the range of 300-400 Hz by the longspine squirrelfish 
because plots of each signal indicated they were out 
of phase with each other (i.e., not temporally synchro- 
nized). Sound production and behavior by this species 
were also recorded by the remotely deployed A /V sys- 
