Population Assessment and Evaluation of the Recovery of the Sea Cucumber Actinopyga mauritiana (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

A survey on Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) was undertaken in 2006 to determine the recovery of surf redfish (Actinopyga mauritiana) in areas harvested in 1996 and 1997, and which were subsequently protected through a CNMI wide moratorium soon after. Surf redfish populations increased from an estimated number of 32,977 in 1997 to 220,578 in 2006, with densities increasing in all management units, from a 1997 low of 0.0.100 m^-2 to a 2006 high of 11.8.100 m^-2. Most significant areas of density increase were in the back-reef aspects of defined management units. Size structure indicated a fully recovered population, though Monte Carlo simulations of the discrete logistic model using varying initial population size, growth rates and annual harvest levels did indicate that surf redfish populations in the Saipan management unit area could become unstable above a projected annual harvest of 40,000 a year. Understanding population growth rates of sea cucumber stocks is essential to the development of sustainable management regimes, and subsequently, there is a need to resurvey harvested sea cucumber populations at regular intervals.