Seafloor habitat definition for spatial management in fisheries: A case study on the continental she

Abstract The importance of habitat to fisheries production on Australia's southeast continental shelf is part of a five-year study of ecosystem functioning and its implications for a sustainable fishery. Benthic habitats from 40 m to ∼200 m were studied, based on identification of suitable sites from local fishers' information. Results presented here concentrate on data from a single mesohabitat at 40–60 m depth collected over two days. Macrohabitats within this mesohabitat were discriminated as soft, hard and rough from visual inspection of acoustic echograms. Subsequent analysis of the return echoes using roughness and hardness indices did not significantly improve real-time visual discriminations. Macrohabitats were sampled with an underwater video camera, sediment sampler, benthic sled, demersal trawl, gillnets and fish traps to relate the acoustic classifications to biological habitats. There were distinct differences in the benthic and fish communities between macrohabitats discriminated by acoustics. We concluded that discrimination of habitats from visual inspection of echograms, plus limited verification with physical sampling, could provide sufficient information for spatial management. However, successful management of individual species, the fish community and the ecosystem requires an understanding of the association of fishes with habitat at the macrohabitat and mesohabitat level, and its variability through time.

[1]  Peter J. Wright,et al.  An assessment of the acoustic survey technique, RoxAnn, as a means of mapping seabed habitat , 1997 .

[2]  Chaos and paradigms for fisheries management , 1996 .

[3]  B.T. Prager,et al.  Bottom classification: operational results from QTC VIEW , 1995, 'Challenges of Our Changing Global Environment'. Conference Proceedings. OCEANS '95 MTS/IEEE.

[4]  D. Tranter,et al.  The coastal enrichment effect of the East Australian Current eddy field , 1986 .

[5]  G. Thouzeau,et al.  Faunal assemblages of benthic mega-invertebrates inhabiting sea scallop grounds from eastern Georges Bank, in relation to environmental factors , 1991 .

[6]  J. Collie,et al.  Effects of bottom fishing on the benthic megafauna of Georges Bank , 1997 .

[7]  P. Hudson,et al.  Review of habitat classification schemes appropriate to streams, rivers, and connecting channels in the Great Lakes drainage system , 1992 .

[8]  N. Nicholson,et al.  Effects of a research trawl on a hard-bottom assemblage of sponges and corals , 1987 .

[9]  Andrew R. Davis,et al.  Patterns in sponge (Porifera) assemblages on temperate coastal reefs off Sydney, Australia , 1996 .

[10]  N. Otway,et al.  Spatial and temporal differences in assemblages of demersal fishes on the inner continental shelf off Sydney, south-eastern Australia , 1994 .

[11]  J. Dugan,et al.  Applications of marine refugia to coastal fisheries management , 1993 .

[12]  Alan Williams,et al.  A vessel-towed camera platform for surveying seafloor habitats of the continental shelf , 1999 .

[13]  K. R. Clarke,et al.  Non‐parametric multivariate analyses of changes in community structure , 1993 .

[14]  Robert J. Urick,et al.  Principles of underwater sound , 1975 .

[15]  Youshouzhai Gu.  Echo , 1980, The Craft of Poetry.

[16]  T. Bernecker,et al.  Mid-Late Tertiary Deep-Water Temperate Carbonate Deposition, Offshore Gippsland Basin, Southeastern Australia , 1997 .

[17]  M. Kaiser,et al.  The effects of beam-trawl disturbance on infaunal communities in different habitats , 1996 .

[18]  James M. Acheson,et al.  Chaos, complexity and community management of fisheries☆ , 1994 .

[19]  C. Roberts.  Ecological advice for the global fisher crisis. , 1997, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[20]  R.,et al.  Faunal assemblages of benthic megainvertebrates inhabiting sea scallop grounds from eastern Georges Bank , in relation to environmental factors , 2022 .

[21]  A. Orlowski.  Application of multiple echoes energy measurements for evaluation of sea bottom type , 1984 .

[22]  Michael J. Fogarty,et al.  Chaos, complexity and community management of fisheries: an appraisal , 1995 .

[23]  W. Siu,et al.  Quantifying the impact of trawling on benthic habitat structure using high resolution acoustics and chaos theory. , 1996 .