Influence of Zoning on Midshelf Shoals of the Southern Great Barrier Reef
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Influence of zoning on midshelf shoals of the southern Great Barrier Reef Marcus Stowar1, Glenn De’ath1, Peter Doherty1, Charlotte Johansson1, Peter Speare1, and Bill Venables2 1Australian Institute of Marine Science 2CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences Supported by the Australian Government’s Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility Project 4.8.2 Influence of the Great Barrier Reef Zoning Plan on inshore habitats and biodiversity, of which fish and corals are indicators: Reefs and shoals © Australian Institute of Marine Science This report should be cited as: Stowar, M., De’ath, G., Doherty, P., Johansson, C., Speare, P. and Venables, B. (2008) Influence of zoning on midshelf shoals of the southern Great Barrier Reef. Report to the Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility. Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Limited, Cairns (106pp.). 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This report is available for download from the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Limited website: http://www.rrrc.org.au/mtsrf/theme_4/project_4_8_2.html 2008 Influence of zoning on midshelf shoals of the southern GBR Contents List of Figures.......................................................................................................................... iii List of Tables........................................................................................................................... iv Acronyms Used In This Report ................................................................................................v Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................v Executive Summary ..............................................................................................................vi Introduction ............................................................................................................................1 Deep shoal habitats............................................................................................................1 Using video techniques to sample deepwater fishes..........................................................2 Monitoring the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas....................................................3 Objectives of the present study ..........................................................................................5 Materials and Methods...........................................................................................................6 Study area ..........................................................................................................................6 Multibeam acoustic mapping..............................................................................................7 Towed video surveys..........................................................................................................8 Fish community surveys using BRUVS..............................................................................9 Sampling design ...........................................................................................................9 Sampling gear ............................................................................................................12 Deployment and retrieval............................................................................................13 Tape analysis .............................................................................................................14 Habitat classification...................................................................................................15 Data treatment and analysis.............................................................................................16 Univariate analyses ....................................................................................................16 Multivariate analyses ..................................................................................................16 Explanatory variables .................................................................................................16 Target and non-target species....................................................................................17 Repeat sampling.........................................................................................................18 Results ..................................................................................................................................19 Multibeam acoustic mapping............................................................................................19 Towed video survey .........................................................................................................19 Fish diversity and abundance...........................................................................................24 Influence of habitat on targeted and non- targeted species .............................................28 Influence of location and depth on targeted and non- targeted species.....................35 Seasonal variability in fish communities...........................................................................38 Short term temporal variabilityand sampling precision in the fish communities sampled............................................................................................................................40 Effects of zoning (closure to fishing) on fish communities................................................42 Analysis based on the aggregates of highly sought after reef dwelling species.........43 Data driven aggregate selection.................................................................................46 Uni- and multivariate analysis of the effects of zoning on individual fish species.......52 Graphical comparison of target species abundances.................................................59 Discussion ............................................................................................................................62 Recommendations for future sampling .............................................................................64 i Stowar, M. et al. 1. Expansion of the study – increasing generality of results ......................................64 2. Frequency of sampling...........................................................................................64 3. Stratification ...........................................................................................................64 4. Spatial replication...................................................................................................64 5. Temporal replication...............................................................................................64 References............................................................................................................................65 Appendices...........................................................................................................................68 ii Influence of zoning on midshelf shoals of the southern GBR List of Figures Figure 1. Map indicating the approximate locations of the study sites in relation to the Zoning Plan...........................................................................................................................................................6 Figure 2. Screen grab from Oziexplorer™ showing real time navigation over the digital terrain model of Karamea Bank...........................................................................................................................7 Figure 3. The AIMS towed video camera being retrieved from the water on the