This study investigates the characteristics and use of spawning sites by the bluehead wrasse Thalassoma bifasciatum in Barbados, and movements of wrasses from source reefs to proximate and isolate recipient reefs. Pair spawning rate increased with increasing projection height; group spawning rate increased with increasing proximity to the downcurrent reef edge. Daily group spawning rates, but not pair-spawning rates, were higher when daily current speeds were lower, suggesting that fertilisation rates in group spawns may be more sensitive to current speed than fertilisation rates in pair spawns. Migration rate to isolated reefs was 16% that to proximate reefs. Immigration rate to recipient reefs decreased with increasing distance from the source reef and increased with increasing population density on the source reef. Immigration rates to proximate reefs were phase, sex, and size-specific, and were strongly influenced by phase, sex, and size-specific differences in home range size of wrasses. Immigration to isolated reefs was also phase and sex-specific. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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