202 
Fishery Bulletin 106(2) 
community structure and fisheries from FSA fishing (or 
unsustainable fishing of individuals at earlier life his- 
tory stages). The data also provide additional support to 
suggest that, while possible, long distance movement by 
reproductively active serranids may be more rare than 
previously assumed and that many aggregating grouper 
are resident to areas near the spawning site. 
The effectiveness of the no-take year-round KMS to 
protect P. areolatus FSAs is evident, because without 
this protection, thousands of groupers could be removed 
within the spawning season and there would be the 
potential for rapid FSA loss and localized population ex- 
tinctions. Regardless of the effectiveness of the KMS in 
protecting spawners at the spawning site, the potential 
for the fishery to impact the reproductive individuals 
still exists. Spawners are being taken along migratory 
corridors or other areas where fish congregate outside 
the KMS, with the potential to meet or exceed the level 
of fishing mortality experienced under aggregation fish- 
ing. In Pohnpei, problems with the existing sales-ban 
strategy are now evident. Firstly, 36% of all recaptured 
fish are taken during serranid sales ban months. Sec- 
ondly, the serranid sales ban was recently shown to 
place added pressure on other equally vulnerable com- 
mercial species not currently managed, such as scarids 
(Rhodes et al., 2007). The increase in catch volume of 
scarids, for example, implies that fishermen have greater 
concern for maintaining catch volume than for the sur- 
vival of individual species and indicates that efforts 
should be concentrated on measures to reduce overall 
catch volume. Similar reductions may be needed in catch 
volume of juveniles and small adults to stem potential 
recruitment overfishing. Thus, effective protection of 
reproductively active serranids will require innovative 
solutions that provide protection for both reproductive 
and nonreproductive individuals, while alleviating the 
potential negative effects of individual species manage- 
ment. The results from this and related studies highlight 
the complexities of reproductive population dynamics 
for aggregating serranids and support total protection 
through no-take bans during reproductive periods and 
no-take areas that support aggregations and associated 
areas where reproductive individuals congregate. Future 
studies should be designed to fill the gaps in our current 
understanding of serranid stocks in Pohnpei to enable a 
determination of sustainable harvest levels. Numerous 
examples globally indicate that the current harvest of 
reproductive adults and targeting of juveniles is cur- 
rently unsustainable and that population declines and 
aggregation losses are imminent without a rapid move 
toward improved management. 
Acknowledgments 
The Conservation Society of Pohnpei and Pohnpei 
Department of Lands and Natural Resources provided 
logistic support and in-kind contributions. P. Dixon, S. 
Malakai, D. Mathias, P. Moses, and C. B. Wichilmel pro- 
vided dive and tag assistance. D. Paul provided histori- 
cal fishing accounts. Funding was provided by a National 
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Coral 
Reef Conservation Grant (NA04NMF4630341). Critical 
reviewer comments greatly improved the manuscript. 
This article is dedicated to the memory of D. Paul. 
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