A Marine Biodiversity Hub study of fish communities on mesophotic reefs has found these habitats deserve greater consideration in marine park zoning and fishery management.
Fishes in the Port Stephens-Great Lakes and Hunter marine parks off New South Wales are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing a rocky reef to dine out on. Extensive expanses of reef occur in this area ranging in depth from the intertidal zone through to mesophotic zone, and possibly deeper.
The shallower reefs (20-40 m) are frequently visited by fishers and scuba divers, so their fish communities are well understood. As you descend into the dim and distant mesophotic zone, however, things are more of a mystery. Relatively little is known about the fishes that favour the reefs between 80-120 metre depths.
In August-November 2016, Joel Williams and David Harasti, and Argonauts (aka technical officers) Roger Laird, Brett Louden and Tom Davis from NSW Primary Industries Fisheries spent 12 days hovering above these temperate reefs.
To learn more about the make-up of fish communities at different depths, they deployed Baited Remote Underwater stereo-Videos (BRUVs) from their vessel Argo. They completed a total of 64 drops on temperate shallow reefs and 43 drops on temperate mesophotic reefs.
Back in the lab, Dr Williams and Dr Harasti spent 150 hours analysing the video and now have an unsurpassed knowledge of how these communities differ. Their findings, published last month in PLOS ONE, will guide future decisions about managing and monitoring these different reef habitats.
Read more: www.nespmarine.edu.au/news/ma...
Негізгі бет Ғылым және технология Mesophotic reefs in Hunter Marine Park
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