Tailoring Ecological Monitoring to Individual Marine Reserves: Comparing Longline to Hook‐and‐Line Gear to Monitor Fish Species

Abstract

Fishery-independent hook-and-line surveys are currently being used to assess marine reserve performance in California and Oregon using a regionally standardized approach. Catch compositions generated from these hookand-line surveys (pole-and-line gear) at Oregon's southernmost marine reserve were compared with local commercial landing data. Several species present in the commercial catch were undersampled in the marine reserve hook-and-line dataset, including China Rockfish Sebastes nebulosus, Vermilion Rockfish S. miniatus, Quillback Rockfish S. maliger, Copper Rockfish S. caurinus, and Cabezon Scorpaenichthys marmoratus. We conducted a gear selectivity study to explore whether modified commercial long-lining gear could supplement current hook-and-line efforts. Both gear types were fished simultaneously from a single vessel inside and outside of the reserve. Species composition, catch rate, size distribution, and fish condition between the two gear types were compared. Catch composition differed significantly between longline and hook-and-line gear. Catch rates of nearshore rocky reef fish species were higher for longline than hook-and-line gear for all but two species. Importantly, higher catch rates were significant for three of the species of interest (Cabezon, Vermilion Rockfish, and Copper Rockfish). For four different species, larger individuals were caught on the longline compared with the hook-and-line gear. Incidence of predation and mortality were higher with long-lining but limited to three species groups: Black Rockfish S. melanops, Blue Rockfish S. mystinus and Deacon Rockfish S. diaconus complex, and Canary Rockfish S. pinniger. Symptoms of barotrauma were higher with hook-and-line gear. We demonstrated that longline gear can be used to catch and release species targeted by the local fishery and used simultaneously with hook-and-line gear from a single vessel to broaden both the species and the size ranges sampled. These results underscore the need to consider regionally standardized long-term monitoring approaches in conjunction with locally tailored efforts to generate data for detecting marine reserve effects at both local and regional scales.Fishery-independent data-collected independently from fisheries landings and logbooks-are recognized as important for improving fishery stock assessments (Harms et al. 2010), monitoring for temporal changes in trophic structure (Shackell et al. 2010), and evaluating the performance of spatial fishing closures (Yoklavich et al. 2007). Different sampling methods have been used to generate fishery-independent data, including nonextractive visual surveys (Watson et al. 2005) and extractive surveys using a variety of fishing gear. Extractive surveys are particularly useful in the nearshore waters of the

Monitoring Populations in Partially Protected Marine Areas: Comparisons of Length Data Derived from Recreational Angler Surveys and Fishery‐Independent Surveys

“…). The results also underscore the need to tailor monitoring techniques to individual marine protected areas and their unique management needs (Huntington and Watson ).…”

“…Such complimentary sampling would essentially promote an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management, where the focus of research and management policies aiming to control levels of fishing pressure becomes the ecosystem rather than an individual target species (Cappo et al 2004;Pikitch et al 2004;Watson et al 2005;Frid et al 2006;Lowry et al 2012). The results also underscore the need to tailor monitoring techniques to individual marine protected areas and their unique management needs (Huntington and Watson 2017).…”

“…In the specific context of partially protected marine areas, it therefore becomes important to understand the relative magnitude and direction of the methodological biases that may be introduced by these sampling techniques with respect to under‐ or overrepresentation of particular length‐classes. This understanding can enable the development of a framework for identifying situations in which fishery‐independent length data should be used in favor of length data based on recreational harvests or vice versa (Murphy and Jenkins ), thereby facilitating the customization of monitoring techniques to the specific needs of an individual partially protected area (Huntington and Watson ). Alternatively, information from this type of study may point to the need for a complimentary approach that employs both sampling methodologies within partially protected areas.…”

A Habitat‐Based, Fishery‐Independent Survey Using Actively Fished Hooked Gear Successfully Characterizes Reef Fish Populations in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico

“…In the present study, using standardized sampling methods over a 5-year period, we found significant variation in year-to-year trends in reef fish abundance in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and some of these data have already been used in stock assessments (Christiansen et al 2017(Christiansen et al , 2018(Christiansen et al , 2019SEDAR 2019). As in the present study, a few active hooked-gear surveys have been able to maintain a longer time series of standardized collections and to track annual abundance trends for Lingcod (Yamanaka and Murie 1995;, rockfish species (Harms et al 2010;Huntington and Watson 2017), and Tautog (Vidal et al 2018). Further research with the RTD method should explore seasonal trends in catch to inform and improve the overall sampling design.…”

Seasonal Distribution and Habitat Preferences of Crimson Seabream Parargyrops edita: Implications for a Marine Protected Area in Beibu Gulf, Northern South China Sea

“…Many countries have been carrying out various conservation and management programs, such as marine protected areas or marine reserves, to help recover marine and coastal fisheries (Meyer et al 2007;Chateau and Wantiez 2009;Lester et al 2009). Determining and understanding the distribution patterns and habitat characteristics of ecologically or economically important marine species are fundamental steps for the design and management of marine protected areas (Pearce et al 2001;Huntington and Watson 2017;Sala and Giakoumi 2018). Examining the seasonal distribution and spatial connectivity of species populations in marine protected areas can help provide a better understanding of migration and spawning movements of focal species, especially fishery species, and further improve the spillover effects of marine protected areas (Russ 2002;Choat 2012).…”