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The South China Sea (SCS) is one of the world’s main centers for coral reef diversity, with more than one-third of all reef fish species being found in this area. Some indications of overfishing have appeared in typical coral reefs of the SCS, as fish diversities have declined and the average body lengths of dominant fish species have decreased. However, only few assessments of coral reef fish stocks have been conducted, due to insufficient available data. In this study, we applied a newly developed length-based Bayesian biomass (LBB) estimation method to assess 10 dominant coral reef fish species from three main reefs (Yongshu Reef, Zhubi Reef, and Meiji Reef) of the Nansha Islands, SCS. Simulations indicated the estimated parameters were not sensitive to sample sizes (more than 100) using the LBB method. Our results showed that the relative biomass levels (B/BMSY) of Cephalopholis spiloparaea, Cephalopholis urodeta, Lutjanus gibbus, Gnathodentex aureolineatus, Pentapodus caninus, and Cheilinus fasciatus were between 0.16 and 0.45, suggesting an overfishing status; the relative biomass levels of Epinephelus merra, and Parupeneus crassilabris were 0.98 and 1.1, respectively, indicating that they were fully exploited; and the relative biomass levels of Lutjanus kasmira and Melichthys vidua were 1.3 and 2.5, respectively, indicating the populations were in good conditions. The estimates of Lc/Lc_opt were less than one for seven stocks, suggesting that the stocks were suffering from growth overfishing. Therefore, we emphasize the need to reduce fishing mortality and increase the mesh size of the coral reef fishery in the Nansha Islands, to achieve a sustainable yield and biomass.

Cephalopholis spiloparaea (Valenciennes in Cuvier & Valenciennes 1828) —Strawberry grouper, tomato grouper Status at New Ireland. First recorded from Lihir Group, Namatamai District, New Ireland by Fry et al. (2006: 130). Specimens observed by Jeff Kinch during CFMDP Survey at Kavieng fish market in 2004–2005. Distribution and habitat. New Ireland: 2, 5.—General distribution: East Africa, Comores and western Mascarenes east to Pitcairn Group, north to Taiwan, Ogasawara and Wake islands, south to Western Australia, New Caledonia and Rapa. Solitary in coral reefs, usually on steep outer slopes, 15–108 m depth. Marine., Published as part of Andréfouët, Serge, Chen, Wei-Jen, Kinch, Jeff, Mana, Ralph, Russell, Barry C., Tully, Dean & White, William T., 2019, Checklist of the marine and estuarine fishes of New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea, western Pacific Ocean, with 810 new records, pp. 1-360 in Zootaxa 4588 (1) on page 115, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4588.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/2988163, {"references":["Fry, G. C., Brewer, D. T. & Venables, W. N. (2006) Vulnerability of deepwater demersal fishes to commercial fishing: Evidence from a study around a tropical volcanic seamount in Papua New Guinea. Fisheries Research, 81, 126 - 141."]}