This report is a summary of the first 3 years of the Fish Survey Project in the Florida Keys, with comparisons among FKNMS sites and with other distant regions. It demonstrates some ways in which data from the Project can be used.
This short paper, prepared after the second year of the Fish Survey Project, overviews the RDT and the more quantitative Stationary Sampling Technique. The advantages to the REEF RDT are discussed, including the information provided on fisheries-independent species and its simplicity. The author concludes that both methods can be used to answer a wide variety of monitoring and scientific questions, although each has advantages and disadvantages.
This manual describes all aspects of REEF data collection and processing. It also provides examples of interpretation of the Fish Survey Project data, and how REEF data are used for The Nature Conservancy's Conservation Profiles.
The quality of fish census data generated by REEF volunteers of various experience levels is examined and compared with data generated by experts. The similarity in species reported, the similarity in abundance category recorded, and the statistical power to detect change are used in the comparison. Species composition and structure is comparable between the skill levels. When sighted, most species are reported with similar abundance categories. The ability to detect change in many species is better for the nonexpert data, a result of higher survey effort for the nonexperts.
A total of 362 species have been reported from 77 sites around Bonaire and the neighboring Klein Bonaire. This makes the Bonaire Marine Park one of the most species rich areas in REEF's database. The paper also showed that the composition of species (presence and abundance) on Klein Bonaire and Bonaire are distinct. In addition to providing data for site characterization, the thousands of surveys in REEF's database will provide a baseline against which future change can be assessed. This paper provides the most comprehensive species list published to date for the Park.
Chapters 2, 4, and 5 of this dissertation present data collected using the RDT. Chapter 2 presents the complete fish assemblage reported by RDT and Stationary Diver Technique (SDT; referred to in Bohnsack, 1996, as the SST) surveys over three years of semi-annual surveys of the Flower Gardens and Stetson Bank, in the northwest Gulf of Mexico. Chapter 4 examines the quality of fish census data generated by REEF nonexperts, and was published in the Journal of Gulf of Mexico Science (Pattengill-Semmens and Semmens, 1998).
Data collected by expert observers were used to evaluate the effect of Sanctuary Preservation Areas in the Florida Keys NMS on fishery-targeted species. Frequency of occurrence of species such as snappers, groupers, and hogfish were greater in sites that had protection from harvesting.
A poster presentation on the REEF/TNC Fish Survey Project with examples of three applications of data generated by the Project. These include evaluating the effect of marine protected areas, mapping species distribution, and applications in general assessment.
As a result of REEF surveyors visiting the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, a new color phase of the smooth trunkfish was documented at the Flower Garden Banks. The occurrence of this golden morph is reported in this paper.
The results of an AGRRA expedition to the Flower Garden Banks are summarized in this technical report. A total of 117 fish species were recorded during the expedition, and REEF surveys documented a new record for the banks, a sharptail eel.