Sanchez et al.: Patterns of courtship acoustics and spawning sites of Mycteroperca bonad 
191 
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CO 
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0 7 14 21 28 6 13 20 27 5 12 19 26 4 11 18 25 
B 
3 10 17 24 1 8 15 22 29 6 13 20 27 5 12 19 26 3 10 
0 7 14 21 28 5 12 19 26 3 10 17 24 2 9 16 23 0 
Days after full moon 
......2014 2013 ——.2012 
Figure 3 
Total number of courtship-associated sounds (CASs) made by black grouper {Mycteroper¬ 
ca bonaci) per day for the corresponding day after a full moon (DAFM) at 3 spawning 
aggregations of black grouper: (A) Riley’s Hump off southern Florida and, in Puerto 
Rico, (B) Bajo de Sico and (C) Mona Island. This time series begins at first full moon 
of each spawning season, from mid-December to mid-January. Quantities of CASs are 
extrapolated out from sampling schedule to whole day. Y-axes are expanded to magnify 
temporal patterns. 
elevated CAS rates in January-April, but intraseasonal 
variability was low and lacked any definable patterns. 
In 2014, the CAS patterns at Bajo de Sico were similar 
to those observed at Mona Island and Riley’s Hump. 
The production of CASs increased significantly on days 
approaching the last quarter and new moons during 
late afternoon hours. This shift indicates a change in 
the use of the study site by black grouper at Bajo de 
Sico, as CAS production here is considered an indirect 
measure for reproductive activity. Either the location 
was a spawning site during both seasons and the tem¬ 
poral dynamics changed between years, or, more prob¬ 
ably but equally intriguing, Bajo de Sico was used only 
as a spawning location in 2014. This question needs to 
be addressed to better understand the local variations 
of temporal patterns at Bajo de Sico. 
The monthly mean number of CASs per day coincid¬ 
ed with the months of lowest annual temperature dur¬ 
ing 2014 at Mona Island and Bajo de Sico. In January, 
February, and March, average temperatures at these 
2 sites were below 27°C before beginning a warming 
trend in late March. April was the first month with av¬ 
erage temperatures above 27°C. Additionally, at Mona 
Island, the minimum temperature for 2014 occurred 
during February, the month with the highest CAS ac¬ 
tivity for all 3 years. Black grouper spawn in the tem¬ 
perature range of 25-28°C throughout their distribu¬ 
tion. Within the greater Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico 
regions, FSAs form in winter months (Garcia-Cagide 
and Garcia, 1996; Eklund et ah, 2000; Brule et ah, 2003; 
Paz and Sedberry, 2008; Scharer et ah, 2014) when 
temperatures decrease to their annual minimums. In 
Bermuda, they occur during summer when sea-surface 
temperatures increase to 26-28°C (Luckhurst, 2010), 
and, in Brazil, the GSI index was highest during the 
winter months of August and September (Teixeira et 
ah, 2004) when average temperatures cooled to 27°C 
(World Sea Temperatures, website). These temperature 
ranges have increased egg hatching success and lar¬ 
val survival of leopard grouper {Mycteroperca rosacea), 
Malabar grouper {Epinephelus malabaricus), and Nas¬ 
sau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) in controlled labora¬ 
tory experiments (Watanabe et ah, 1995; Gracia-Lopez 
et ah, 2004; Yoseda et ah, 2006) and indicate that ocean 
