Franklin EC, Platt MT, Andrade P. Increased occurrence of the rare golden color morph of Pacific chub Kyphosus sandwicensis in a no-take marine reserve.
JOURNAL OF FISH BIOLOGY 2024;
104:1237-1240. [PMID:
38145886 DOI:
10.1111/jfb.15644]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2023] [Revised: 11/27/2023] [Accepted: 12/08/2023] [Indexed: 12/27/2023]
Abstract
Pacific chub, Kyphosus sandwicensis, are typically gray but some individuals display a golden color morph. We estimated that the frequency of occurrence of the golden morphs increased significantly from 2007 (1.9%) and 2012 (2.6%) to 2017 (5.0%) inside a no-take marine reserve around Nihoa Island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. While sporadic observations of a golden color morph have been noted for several other marine fish species, we provide a quantitative estimate of changes in the frequency of occurrence of the morph within a wild marine population.
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