*2.4. Analysis of the Utility of the BOLD as an Identification Tool for Parrotfish*

A total of 350 sequences belonging to 43 species of parrotfish with genus and species names assigned were found in a search on BOLD. In the case of these records, the number of barcoded index numbers (BIN) associated with each species was recorded. If a species was associated with a BIN, an assessment was conducted to determine whether the BIN was associated with any other species.

#### *2.5. Data Analysis*

SSR Hunter 1.3 software was used to edit the sequences, Clustal X 1.83 was used to align all the sequences, and redundant sequences at both ends were removed. Mega 7.0 was used to analyze the nucleotide composition, number of mutation sites and codon composition of all sequences. Based on the Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) model, inter and intraspecific genetic distances were calculated, molecular phylogenetic trees were constructed using the neighbor-joining (NJ) method, and their confidence was tested by 1000 repeated samplings.

### *2.6. Ethics Statement*

All experiments in this study were conducted in accordance with the regulations and guidelines established by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (No. SCSFRI96-253).
