Effects of a spatial closure on highly mobile fish species: an assessment using pelagic stereo-BRUVs
Access Status
Authors
Date
2014Type
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Source Title
ISSN
School
Collection
Abstract
The effects of a spatial area closure on pelagic fish assemblages within the Houtman Abrolhos Islands were assessed using mid-water pelagic stereo-BRUVs. The spatial area closure within the Easter group of the Houtman Abrolhos Islands was found to have no significant effect on the species composition and relative abundance of pelagic fish assemblages. The most abundant demersal target species recorded was pink snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) and, individuals measured within the spatial closure were significantly larger than those sampled in the area open to fishing. This spatial area closure is of moderate size (22.3 km2), but the spatial management of highly mobile species may require larger area closures than those for reef-associated species. The monitoring of pelagic species both in large and small spatial area closures is required in order to better understand how mobile species respond to this management strategy. Some species were only recorded in relatively low numbers using pelagic stereo-BRUVs. Moreover, some of the highly mobile pelagic fish species, such as tunas, mackerel and some shark species have proven difficult to measure, as these species were observed furthest from the camera systems. While pelagic stereo-BRUVs are an effective fishery-independent approach to monitor spatial fishing closures, improving the power of replicates by pooling individual deployments, and increasing the attraction rate of pelagic fish to the stereo-cameras, will enhance their performance in future studies.
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Santana-Garcon, J.; Braccini, M.; Langlois, T.; Newman, Stephen; McAuley, R.; Harvey, Euan (2014)Our understanding of the ecology of sharks and other highly mobile marine species often relies on fishery-dependent data or extractive fishery-independent techniques that can result in catchability and size-selectivity ...
-
Santana-Garcon, J.; Newman, S.; Harvey, Euan (2014)Understanding the abundance, demographics and composition of pelagic fish communities has historically relied on fisheries catch data or destructive fishery-independent methods. Here, we test and validate the use of a ...
-
McIlwain, Jennifer; Harvey, Euan; Grove, S.; Shiell, G.; Al Oufi, H.; Al Jardani, N. (2011)The coastal shelf of the Gulf of Oman experiences periodic upwelling events during the summer months that are driven by the southwest monsoon. It is unclear what role these events play in the spatial and temporal distribution ...