CHARACTERIZATION OF DEMERSAL FISH ASSEMBLAGES WITHIN SELECT SANCTUARY ECOLOGICALLY SIGNIFICANT AREAS IN THE MBNMS Emily Aiken - Nycole Baruch - Megan Bassett - Robyn Carlson - Megan Cuzick - Sarah deVilla - DeMi Dudley - Louis Espinola - Natalie King - James Lindholm - Janning Ma - Mackenzie Morgan - Kenneth Norberg - Erin Ovalle Angela Preston - Jessica Schulz - Ashleigh Shafer - Erica Smith - Katie Sowul - Jessica Tatum - Breanna Thunholm - Carley Turner - Akira Vasquez - Jared Worland California State University, Monterey Bay What is a SESA? A Sanctuary Ecologically Significant Area (SESA) is a location within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary which contains specific habitat, and/or biological communities that are important to, or representative of, the marine environment. SESAs facilitate research to better understand natural and human caused variation within the Sanctuary. Davenport Fish variation across SESAs 100% 90% Rockfish inhabit virtually rock-less Davenport SESA 80% Mixed 70% 12% Hard 3% 60% 50% Rockfish were the Soft 85% dominant species Davenport Fish Habitat 40% making up 45% of all fish Association 30% inside the SESA. Although rockfish are known for their Fish Population of Total Percent 20% Rockfish association with hard substrates, the 10% majority were found over soft habitat. A deeper analysis of the rockfish species Miscellaneous Fish 0% Davenport Davenport Davenport Bay Large Bay Small Point Sur Piedras revealed Half-banded rockfish and Green- Upper North Lower North Blancas striped rockfish (shown in order) account for Seafloor Finfish 51% and 20% of rockfish respectively. Both species Rockfish Flatfish Seafloor Finfish Juvenile Rockfish Miscellaneous Fish commonly associate with soft substrate, while most Rockfish Flatfish other rockfish associate with hard habitat. Flatfish soft hard 100% 50% 0 50% Point Sur Why care about differences between Rockfish dominate densest SESA SESAs? Soft 30% Hard An understanding of the communities within 58% Mixed SESA 13 Species Habitat Distribution each SESA will aid the MBNMS in meeting its 12% management objectives and can serve as a Although Juvenile Rockfish baseline against which any future change in the Point Sur was SESAs can be measured. only slightly dominated by hard substrate, a whopping Rockfish 90% of 30,882 fish were observed above hard habitat. Four-fifths of hard Seafloor Finfish habitat dwelling fish were rockfish. Despite Pygmy rockfish dominating the majority of total fish (27%), Flatfish the second most common fish was the Blackeye goby (22%), followed by Blue rockfish (15%) and Rosy rockfish (12%), both shown above. Miscellaneous Fish Rockfish Flatfish hard soft 100% 50% 0 50% 100% Piedras Blancas Fish association with less common substrate SESA 14 Species Habitat Distribution Hard 19% Mixed 6% Juvenile Rockfish Soft 75% Miscellaneous Fish Piedras Blancas is unique in that a majority of substrate is soft (74%), but Seafloor Finfish 77% of fish were observed over hard substrate despite its occurrence in only 19% of the SESA. Rockfish species made up 93% of all fish associated with hard habitat. Rockfish Specifically, Pygmy rockfish were the most abundant, accounting for 84% of all fish. In far-off second place is the Blackeye goby, accounting for 10% of total fish. Flatfish Rockfish Flatfish Hard Soft 100% 50% 0 50% 100% Acknowledgements We thank Allison Cramer for her valuable input and assistance on this project. This work was supported by the Institute for Applied Marine Ecology (IfAME), the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and the California State University Monterey Bay Seafloor Mapping Lab .