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Reef Fish Survey Team

Fishery Independent Surveys

Annual Video and Trap Survey

Beginning in 2004  a survey of reef fishes on the inner shelf natural hard bottom habitat in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico was conducted using chevron fish traps.  In 2005 stationary video cameras were added to the survey for collecting visual data on relative abundance and species composition.  The objectives of the survey include developing annual estimates of abundance and age structure of exploited reef fishes and examining spatial and temporal pattern demographics and community structure.  The focus areas; are in waters 10-50 m in depth, and from waters offshore of Destin, FL to Crystal River, FL.  Sampling is conducted during daylight hours (1 hr after sunrise- 1 hr before sunset) from May-October. Each station consists of a 45 min camera drop, followed by a CTD cast to collect temperature, salinity, oxygen, and light transmission  Traps are dropped after the camera array has been recovered on approximately 50% of the stations in order to obtain length, age, and reproductive data.  All trap-caught fish are identified, counted, and measured to maximum total and fork length.  Catch per unit effort (CPUE) is then computed for each species as numbers caught per trap hour.  Otoliths are collected from randomly subsampled groupers, snappers, black Seabass, red porgy, hogfish, and white grunt.  For gray triggerfish the first dorsal spine is taken for aging. 

A red porgy, Pagrus pagrus, checks out the camera array on a reef in 31.5 m in the Big Bend of Florida. 

Red snapper, gray snapper, gag grouper, and scamp over a reef in 22 m offshore of Panama City, FL

This annual survey continues to expand as we increase the number of sites sampled, as well as cover a larger area.  In 2011 we completed  180 sites sampled with cameras of which 82 of those sites an associated trap sampling was conducted..  For comparison, the first year of the survey, 59 sites were sampled with traps only. 

All sites sampled in 2011 for the annual Reef fish video and trap survey. 

Northern Gulf Institute ROV Survey

In 2006 we began studying fish community structure, trophic dynamics, demographics, and habitat associations on hard bottom habitats from nearshore to the shelf break (70m) in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as delineating and quantifying those habitats using multibeam sonar. Three sites were sampled seasonally (winter, summer, and fall) in each of three depths: 23 (inshore), 37 (midshelf), and 49 m (offshore).  Video data on species composition, relative abundance, and size structure were collected using an ROV.  Specimens for age, food habits, and stable isotope analyses were collected using hook-and-line, traps, and spears. In addition to monitoring these hard bottom, low relief reefs (<2m), we’ve started studying high relief reef habitats in similar depths to our current midshelf and offshore sites (37-49m), but host relief of up to 10m.  Thus far, the habitat has been mapped using side scan sonar and ROV visual sampling is ongoing.  

Sampling strata coupled with multibeam bathymetry from yrs 1-3.