Movement of Fishes at the Anacapa Island State Marine Reserve

California sheephead and kelp (calico) bass are being tracked in the waters surrounding Anacapa Island, off the coast of Ventura, California. The data are still being collected, but read below about the goals of the project and check back later for results!

kelp bass
California sheephead
Kelp bass
(Paralabarax clathratus)
California Sheephead
(Semicossyphus pulcher)
Principal Investigator:
James Lindholm, Ph.D., Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research
Timeline:
Initiated in May 2004, on-going.

Marine reserves (MRs), also known as no-take reserves, represent one of the primary tools for conservation and management of the marine environment.  Increasing interest in MRs over the past decade has focused broadly on the conservation of biological diversity and on fisheries management. While the theoretical justification for MRs is extensive and mounting evidence demonstrates the effectiveness of MRs as management tools, empirical data is still needed on the utility of MRs for mobile taxa such as fishes.

Key questions we wish to answer in this regard are:

  1. A conservation question: Are the current MR locations and sizes appropriate for the protection of the species of interest?
  2. A fishery management question: Is there “spillover” of exploitable animals from inside the reserve into surrounding fished areas?

The need for answers to these questions is particularly acute in locations where MRs continue to be controversial due to conflicting resource issues, such as the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS), where 10 no-take reserves and 2 conservation areas were designated in April 2003. The State Marine Reserves exclude all taking of living, geological, or cultural resources from within the reserve boundaries, while the State Marine Conservation Areas permit some commercial and recreational extraction (CA Dept. of Fish and Game, 2003). 

state marine reserves and marine conservation areas as of 09 April, 2003
Figure 1: Array map
Map of State Marine Reserves and State Marine Conservation Areas in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, including the location of PIER's acoustic receiver array.

In March 2003, a workshop convened jointly by the California Department of Fish and Game, the CINMS, and the Channel Islands National Park identified and prioritized a list of marine species and habitats for monitoring in the new MRs in the Channel Islands.  Kelp bass (Paralabarax clathratus) and California sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) were both prioritized highly by the workshop.

The primary objective of this on-going project is to quantify habitat-specific movements of 50 acoustically-tagged kelp bass and 52 acoustically-tagged sheephead inside and out of the Anacapa Island State Marine Reserve (ASMR). The movements of each fish are being recorded by a 44-node acoustic receiver array that is currently deployed around the island. Additional fish and invertebrate species (spiny lobster) will be added to the project over time.


Figure 2: Anacapa
Map of acoustic receiver array at Anacapa Island, including the boundaries for the State Marine Reserve and State Marine Conservation Area. The pie charts on the northern side of the island represent the relative abundance of seafloor habitats within the range of each acoustic receiver.

Learn more about how PIER researchers:

 

PIER gratefully acknowledges the support of the George T. Pfleger Foundation.