Florida s Artificial Reef Monitoring Efforts Prepared by Keith Mille March 14, 2016 Dive assessment of the Oriskany Reef, October 2006. Photo by Keith Mille Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Division of Marine Fisheries Management
Statewide Artificial Reef Deployments 3,098 locations Atlantic: 1,029 Gulf: 2,069
Monitoring Goals Spot check performance of artificial reefs Look at physical condition Utilization by marine life Compliance with permit conditions Monitor Permit Compliance Pre-construction During Post-construction Ensure the reef is meeting its specific objectives Biological Non-biological Socio-economic
Monitoring Efforts Internal operations (within DMFM) Intra-agency (within FWC) FWRI-FIM Reef Fish Program efforts Inter-agency NOAA, University, other entity efforts
Monitoring Efforts Internal operations (within DMFM), 3 staff SCUBA Assessments (39 during 2015) Structural measurements Visual fish assessments (Roving Diver) Photo and video documentation Side Scan Sonar (2 during 2015) Transom-mounted (Humminbird) Towfish (Shark Marine) Drop and Towable Cameras (future) GoPro
Monitoring Efforts Contracted Research: project-specific (in response to RFP) 141 Grants funded since 1987 (approx. 4 annually) Monitoring (80); Research (51); Socio-economic (10) Methods SCUBA assessments ROV video Side scan Acoustic tracking Hydrophones Hook and line Socio-economic Acoustic listening hydrophone (USF, 2015)
Monitoring Efforts Contracted Monitoring/Citizen Science (in response to RFP) SCUBA Assessments Structural measurements Visual fish assessments (primarily Roving Diver)
FL Artificial Reef Reference Library Theses, 2% Books, 3% Newsletters, 3% Conference Proceedings, 9% News/Magazine Articles, 12% Journal Articles, 29% Other, 5% 1. Reports (491) 2. Journal Articles (393) 3. News/Magazine Articles (153) 4. Conference paper/proceedings (112) 5. Newsletters (39) 6. Books (38) 7. Theses (20) Other: Reports, 37% 8. Personal Communications (23) 9. Pamphlets (10) 10. Unpublished works (8) 11. Bibliographies (7) 12. Legislation/Government Documents (4) 13. Electronic Articles (3) 14. Charts/Tables/Figures (2) 15. Presentations (2) 16. Patents (1)
Overview of FIM Offshore Accomplishments and Upcoming Work Ted Switzer 2016 FIM Annual Meeting
NFWF Estimated Field Man Days 2015 Survey Type 2015 Baitfish 56 Summer SEAMAP 200 Fall SEAMAP 200 Fixed Station 36 SSS TB/CH 135 Camera/Trap TB/CH 175 SSS Panhandle 135 Camera/Trap Panhandle 175 Exploratory hooked gear 60 Exploratory artificial reef 50 Total 1,222
2015 Sea Days Per Capita Lab Total Sea Days Offshore Field Staff Sea Days Per Staff Apalachicola 78 6 13 Cedar Key 142 7 20 Tampa Bay 725 28 26 Charlotte Harbor 233 10 23 Indian River 137 6 23 Jacksonville 160 7 23 TOTAL 1,475 64 23
SSS: 2015 Fun Facts Completed 911 surveys, totaling 5,500 linear miles Mapped area of 574 nm 2 (half of Rhode Island) 36 million pings (or an estimated 101,250,000,000,000 grains of sand!) SUCA: 2,229 total habitat reads
SEAMAP Groundfish Trawl (2014 Data)
Acoustic Mapping Survey Habitats highly variable by region Western Panhandle mostly sand with artificial reefs throughout (natural reef deeper only) Peninsula large areas of mid-to-low relief hard bottom habitats and excavated areas (grouper/tilefish pits) Two small ARs in sea of sand Ridges of hard bottom run parallel to isobath
2016 Reef Fish Survey Significant survey expansion: Acoustic mapping Cameras Hooked gears Multiple vessels to support operations
Key Reef Fish Survey Changes Procedural changes: Chevron traps eliminated Hooked gear exploratory work to collect Gag and Gray Triggerfish life history samples Deepwater sampling analysis of lighted cameras ongoing, implementation delayed until 2017 Technology changes: New cameras Video only no stills SeaGIS to count and measure
More Camera Details Wider baseline more accurate measurements Wider camera angle more viewable area: Requires calibration likely species specific Old field of view New field of view
Video Data Big Picture Offshore FIM cooperative in nature (NMFS, other states) Intent complementary surveys, combined for analysis Pollack et al. 2015
Reef Fish Survey Long Term Vision Unified survey design among three labs Defining strata? Space, some form of Geoform? Problem SSS vs. multibeam Working on some comparative overlap Scale? Still, movement towards habitat-based design
Reef Fish Survey Long Term Vision Current design effort proportional to habitat availability: Concern oversampling some habitats, undersampling others Design needs: Estimates of habitat proportionality ID of habitat strata (aggregate Geoform) Habitat-specific variances of species of interest Goal reassess after three years of full NFWF sampling 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Upcoming GOM SEDARs (2016) SEDAR 49 Data-limited species (includes Red Drum and Lane Snapper among others) Updates to Gag and Greater Amberjack Assessments Stock ID for Lane and Gray Snapper 2017 2018: Red Snapper Yellowtail Snapper Gray Snapper Scamp Yellowedge Grouper
Long-Term Funding High priority on both coasts Still unresolved however, several possibilities (mostly GOM-centric): SEAMAP expansion Agency-independent research and data collection for Red Snapper Oil spill funding RESTORE, FL funding
Monitoring Efforts FWC-DMFM Artificial Reef Program, pulling it all together # # # Permit Areas Artificial Reef Locations Public Reefs Private Reefs Agency Reefs Potential Reefing Activity NOAA/FWRI Side-Scan Data Prepared by Brad Ennis, FWC-DMFM
Questions? More info: FWC, DMFM-Artificial Reefs: Keith Mille and Brad Ennis FWC, FWRI-FIM Program: Ted Switzer