In this context, we conclude that the habitat, currents
and migratory abilities of L. setiferus provide for mixing
along the coastlines, that the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico populations are large enough that any historical
population bottlenecks have not had long-term effects, and
that these large populations of L. setiferus have probably
been in contact recently enough (on a timescale of Ne generations)
that genetic drift has not yet produced large
amounts of differentiation. The weak differences detected
between the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic are consistent
with the present-day disjunct distributions and the
historical biogeography of this region.