Delta in the Cowcod Conservation
Areas
NOAA's Undersea Research Program - NURP
This story entered on 28th Jan, 2003 07:22:46 AM PST
In response to a drastic decline in population levels
of many rockfish species and lingcod over the past several decades,
the Pacific Fisheries Management Council established two Cowcod
Conservation Areas off southern California in 2001. Within the Cowcod
Conservation Areas, fishing for all groundfish is prohibited within
4,300 square miles, except in nearshore waters shallower than 20
fathoms (37 meters). This move is part of an international effort
to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for the preservation
and recovery of marine populations. However, there is growing concern
in many quarters that mechanisms are not in place to assess whether
the MPAs accomplish their intended purposes.
In the Cowcod Conservation Areas, a team of fisheries
scientists and specialists in habitat mapping have begun an intensive
program to assess the effectiveness of this MPA by determining the
current status of the groundfish species and their benthic habitats.
The research team is headed by Milton Love, the University of California
Santa Barbara, and Mary Yoklavich, NOAA Fisheries, with scientists
from the California Sea Grant Program, the California Department
of Fish & Game, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and Washington
State University.
During a highly productive 30-day research cruise in
sunny, calm weather off southern California, the scientific team
completed an astonishing 124 dives in the Delta, a manned submersible.
These dives were systematic transects to visually inventory groundfishes,
macro-invertebrates, associated habitats, and locations of fishing
gear on the seafloor. The Delta visited every major offshore bank
inside the Cowcod Conservation Areas, as well as, designated sites
outside the conservation areas. One of the target species on the
Delta dives was cowcod, a rockfish species with a current population
at 4-11% of the unfished level. During dives, observers saw more
than 250 cowcod ranging from 6cm young-of-the-year to a few enormous
survivors larger than 100cm. The data for each fish species will
be analyzed for fish populations and size distribution, habitat
associations, habitat quality, and other characteristics that can
establish a baseline for tracking effectiveness of the Cowcod Conservation
Areas.
Funding for the Fall 2002 Delta dive program was provided
by NOAA's Undersea Research Program's (NURP) West Coast & Polar
Region Center with co-funding for scientific support from the Packard
Foundation, NOAA Fisheries Offices of Habitat Conservation and Protected
Resources, and NOAA's Marine Protected Area Science Institute.
More information, see the Love Lab Homepage on the University of
CA, Santa Barbara Web site: http://www.id.ucsb.edu/lovelab/index.html
Contact information:
Name: Jennifer Reynolds
Tel: (907) 474-5871
jreynolds@ims.uaf.edu
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