Checklist of the fishes of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Moots KA, Trianni MS, Flores TR. 2000. Checklist of the fishes of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. CNMI Technical Report 00-01. CNMI Department of Lands and Natural Resources, Division of Fish and Wildlife. CNMI
This checklist encompasses only the fishes found in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The checklist includes pelagic, deep-water, freshwater, and reef fishes recorded from reefs, banks, and islands over the past 20 years. There are 129 families and 1,082 species in the checklist, for which 75% have been specifically reported from the CNMI and 56% have locality-specific records. Of these 1,082 taxa, 903 species are primarily reef fishes, 88 are deep-water fishes, 69 are pelagic, and 22 occur in freshwater as adults. Forty-two species are included here that are not listed in Myers (1999) for the Marianas Archipelago. An additional 58 species are included here that are not included in Myers (1999) at all. Sixty-two new records (33 from Rota, 15 from Farallon de Medinilla, 1 from Saipan, 1 from Malakis Reef, and 11 locality-specific records for taxa that previously didn't have any) were added during FY2000. Of these records, three were new for the Marianas Archipelago, Chaetodon baronessa, C. speculum, and Decapterus tabl. Distributional records are not evenly distributed among the included families, or among each of the islands or banks. The checklist of the Fishes of the CNMI is a fundamental component for the monitoring and management of CNMI fisheries resources. During FY 2001, emphasis will be placed on ensuring that records from the shallow-water bottomfish project have been included in the checklist, wherever appropriate. New records will also be added as the opportunity arises. We will focus on some of the more poorly known families, especially those that are small in size (especially the gobies, blennies, and apogonids).
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Moots, Kate; Trianni, Michael; Flores, Tony
- Date of Issue
- 2000-09-30
- Publisher
- CNMI Department of Lands and Natural Resources, Division of Fish and Wildlife
- Units
- AMME , PACN
- Keywords
- Baseline Inventory, Checklist, Coral Reefs, Distribution (Biodiversity), Fisheries Management, Marine Fish, Observations, Presence (Biodiversity), Taxa Links To References, Vouchers