262 
Fishery Bulletin 106(3) 
Table 1 
Clusters of species in 
headboat and commercial landings, listed in order of strongest to weakest cluster, as measured by each 
cluster’s average silhouette width (in parentheses). Clusters were partitioned around £ = 14 (headboat) or k=l (commercial) 
medoids — values determined by highest average silhouette widths computed from all species. 
See Appendix for the scientific 
names of species. 
Headboat clusters 
Commercial clusters 
One (0.22) 
Six (0.07) 
One (0.17) 
Six (0.01) 
Bank sea bass 
Cubera snapper 
Black sea bass 
Bluestriped grunt 
Black sea bass 
Warsaw grouper 
Gag 
Crevalle jack 
Gag 
Gray triggerfish 
French grunt 
Gray triggerfish 
Seven (0.04) 
Margate 
Lane snapper 
Greater amberjack 
Blackfin snapper 
Red grouper 
Whitebone porgy 
Knobbed porgy 
Cottonwick 
Red porgy 
Red porgy 
Sand tilefish 
Red snapper 
Seven (0.00) 
Red snapper 
Silk snapper 
Scamp 
Lesser amberjack 
Scamp 
Vermilion snapper 
Tomtate 
Eight (0.03) 
White grunt 
Vermilion snapper 
Black margate 
White grunt 
Coney 
Two (0.14) 
Whitebone porgy 
Porkfish 
Black grouper 
Blue runner 
Two (0.19) 
Nine (0.00) 
Gray snapper 
Blue runner 
Bar jack 
Greater amberjack 
Bluestriped grunt 
Black grouper 
Mutton snapper 
French grunt 
Hogfish 
Yellowtail snapper 
Gray snapper 
Margate 
Jolthead porgy 
Ocean triggerfish 
Three (0.07) 
Lane snapper 
Red hind 
Almaco jack 
Mutton snapper 
Saucereye porgy 
Banded rudderfish 
Red grouper 
Schoolmaster 
Blueline tilefish 
Yellowtail snapper 
Silk snapper 
Ten (0.00) 
Snowy grouper 
Three (0.18) 
Atlantic 
Tilefish 
Blueline tilefish 
spadefish 
Yellowedge grouper 
Snowy grouper 
Speckled hind 
Eleven (0.00) 
Four (0.04) 
Yellowedge grouper 
Crevalle jack 
Hogfish 
Jolthead porgy 
Four (0.11) 
Twelve (0.00) 
Rock hind 
Almaco jack 
Dog snapper 
Banded rudderfish 
Five (0.02) 
Graysby 
Thirteen (0.00) 
Knobbed porgy 
Queen triggerfish 
Longspine porgy 
Ocean triggerfish 
Rock hind 
Red hind 
Fourteen (0.00) 
Five (0.09) 
Scup 
Nassau grouper 
Yellowfin grouper 
Yellowmouth grouper 
restrictive use of indicator species could be considered 
a precautionary approach to management. 
In this study of reef fishes off the southeastern United 
States, we found little evidence of synchrony in popu- 
lation dynamics, and thus, no support for the use of 
indicator species. One possible reason for these negative 
results is that the study area was too broad; however, 
similar findings have been documented at smaller spa- 
tial scales (Parker and Dixon, 1998). A second reason 
is that the indices of abundance did not accurately 
