Channel Islands MPA Project:
Phase
I - Exploratory Surveys
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The Channel Islands MPA Project is being achieved through a partnership with California Department of Fish and Game, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and The Nature Conservancy. |
Background
- Channel Island Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
Phase I - Exploratory Surveys
Phase
II - Quantitative Surveys
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Background
The Department of Fish & Game identified
ten priority areas around Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands
to be surveyed, inventoried and monitored by MARE.
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ROV
exploratory surveys off the Channel Islands, CA
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The goal was to identify where fish live,
then regularly survey these areas to identify any changes
in species abundance over time. Sites were selected within
and outside the Marine Protected Areas.
In this first phase of the project, we aimed to identify
areas with greater than 80% hard or mixed substrate, as
this is the habitat of the fish that are the focus of this
study.
Sites were initially chosen by consulting
sidescan and multibeam sonar maps that showed the topography
of the sea floor. Our surveys intended to ground truth the
data and identify key reefs for the quantitative surveys
in phase
II.
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Methods
Baseline surveys were undertaken at 20 - 100 meter depths
at 14 different sites using ROVs.
2 - 3 km long transects were tracked for each ROV run.
Video footage (using two cameras - forward & downward)
was coupled with GPS location, depth, water temperature,
speed over ground, date and time to give 70 hours of geo-referenced
data.
20 dives were also conducted to ground truth the data.
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Results
Video footage was used to characterize and produce habitat
and species maps, and aided the selection of hard substrate
sites for quantitative surveys in phase
II of the project.
This exploratory dataset documents current conditions and
will be valuable for comparisons with future monitoring
at the same sites. |
