Fish growth underpins individual fitness and population-level metrics, with fluctuations linked to environmental variability. Growth chronologies derived from otolith increment analysis are a powerful proxy to understand population responses to environmental change and productivity. Yet, long-term patterns of growth and their environmental drivers are better understood for shallow-water species compared to deep-water inhabitan...

The sympatric red snappers, Lutjanus erythropterus and Lutjanus malabaricus , are highly valued by commercial and recreational fishers along the tropical northern coasts of Australia and throughout their distribution. Studies on the life history and ecology of these congeners are confounded by difficulties in distinguishing the cryptic juveniles of each species (i.e., n = 71) and northeast ( n = 19) coasts of Australia, and sp...

A new species of deep‐water epinephelid fish is described from the west coast of Australia based on 14 specimens, 99–595 mm standard length. Hyporthodus griseofasciatus sp. nov. is endemic to Western Australia from Barrow Island to Two Peoples Bay in depths of 76–470 m. It has a series of eight grey bands alternating with eight brown bands along the body and the soft dorsal, soft anal and caudal fin margins are pale cream to w...

Marine fisheries in coastal ecosystems in many areas of the world have historically removed large‐bodied individuals, potentially impairing ecosystem functioning and the long‐term sustainability of fish populations. Reporting on size‐based indicators that link to food‐web structure can contribute to ecosystem‐based management, but the application of these indicators over large (cross‐ecosystem) geographical scales has been lim...

The yellowspotted rockcod, Epinephelus areolatus , is a small‐sized grouper that is widely distributed throughout the Indo‐Pacific, where it forms a valuable component of the harvest derived from multispecies fisheries along continental and insular shelves. Samples of E. areolatus were collected from 2012 to 2018 from commercial catches and research surveys in the Kimberley, Pilbara and Gascoyne regions of north‐western Austra...

Marine reserves are a key tool for the conservation of marine biodiversity, yet only ~2.5% of the world's oceans are protected. The integration of marine reserves into connected networks representing all habitats has been encouraged by international agreements, yet the benefits of this design has not been tested empirically. Australia has one of the largest systems of marine reserves, providing a rare opportunity to assess how...

Entrainment of growth patterns of multiple species to single climatic drivers can lower ecosystem resilience and increase the risk of species extinction during stressful climatic events. However, predictions of the effects of climate change on the productivity and dynamics of marine fishes are hampered by a lack of historical data on growth patterns. We use otolith biochronologies to show that the strength of a boundary curren...