2000 Nearshore rocky reef assessment. Newport, OR: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Identification Information

Citation

Originator: Fox, D.S.; Amend, M.; Merems, A., Appy, M.

Publish Date: 2000

Online Link: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/MRP/publications/habitat_2000.pdf

BPA Project #:

Contact Information

Agency: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Name: Dave Fox

Job Position: Marine Program Developer/Asst. Program Manager

Telephone: (541) 867-0300 x228

E-Mail Address: Ryan.Hilgris@oregonstate.edu

Description

Abstract: Over the past five years, our nearshore reef studies have focused on large, contiguous rocky reef habitats. These are known areas of rockfish abundance. During a fish sampling and habitat mapping project in 1998, we found substantial quantities of fish off of Cape Perpetua but were not able to detect rocky reef areas using a single beam sonar survey tool (Fox, et al. 1998). Fishermen have long known that small patches of rock are present off of Cape Perpetua between 30 and 60 m water depth, and these harbor rockfish and other groundfish species. During 2000, we returned to the Cape Perpetua area to conduct a full survey of bottom habitat and examine fish utilization of small habitat patches. If the small habitat patches prove important to rockfish, they need to be sampled along with the large contiguous reefs to fully understand nearshore rockfish abundance and distribution on the coast. Our overall objective of the study was to examine nearshore rockfish use of small disjunct rocky habitat patches. The primary research questions included: - What are the spatial patterns of nearshore rockfish distribution on small disjunct rocky habitat patches? - What is the minimum size of isolated rocky habitat patches utilized by nearshore rockfish? A second major objective was to test the sampling effectiveness of our newly-acquired ROV and develop methods for quantitative fish sampling. Data collection methods for this project included side scan sonar surveys to identify and map bottom habitats and ROV video transects to count and identify fish. Section 2.1 discusses the side-scan sonar survey and Section 2.2 discusses the fish survey.

Purpose:

Time Period of Content: 2000

Geographic Extent: Southern Oregon Coast including the

Status: Final

Use Constraints:

Format: PDF File

Data Quality Information

Lineage-Source:

Data Information

No data information was supplied.

Entity and Attribute Information

Attributes Description:

Is a physical copy maintained for reference at Headquarters? Unknown