DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

ZOOGEOGRAPHY

ECOLOGY

BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR

VALUE OF FISH RESOURCES

CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT

DANGEROUS MARINE FISHES

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

BIBLIOGRAPHY

SPECIES INDEX

CHAMORRO NAMES

SIGANIDAE (RABBITFISHES)

Rabbitfishes possess well-developed, venomous dorsal and anal fin spines. The first dorsal spine is small and projects forward.  Their venom can result in an extremely painful sting.  The rabbitfish species pictured here are subject to two separate fisheries during their life.  The first occurs when the youngest stages (Manahac) recruit to the reef in seasonal runs at the time of the moon's last quarter (quarto menguate) in April and May (and occasionally later in the year).  In some years they are harvested in great quantities, while in other years the run is quite weak.  After a few days on shallow reef flats, Manahac adopt a herbivorous diet.  This stage is called Dage locally and is not highly valued as food.  The Dage continue to feed on algae and grow over a period of months to the adult stage in which they spread out over the reef in deeper waters and are again sought as foodfish. Adults are harvested by spear, a variety of nets, and hook and line using Enteromorpha seaweed as bait.

Siganus spinus (Linnaeus)
Siganus argenteus (Quoy & Gaimard)