Harter, Stacey

A 14-day research cruise was conducted May 30 to June 12, 2021 by NOAA National Marine Fisheries on the NOAA Ship Pisces with the UNCW Mohawk ROV with a pre-cruise Shelter in Place (SIP. Other collaborators involved include: the Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research, and Technology (CIOERT) at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University (HBOI-FAU), and University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW). Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Technical Report Number 199.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) and Department of Commerce through the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management Act have established eight deepwater Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), five Deepwater Coral Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (CHAPCs), and the Oculina Coral HAPC off of the southeastern U.S. This project proposes to document and characterize the benthic habitat, benthic sessile biota, and fish populations within some of these protected areas and within the jurisdiction of the SAFMC. The Oculina Experimental Closed Area (OECA) was established in 1994 and closed the area to all bottom fishing in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the reserve for management and conservation of snapper grouper populations. The OECA is located within the Oculina Habitat Area of Particular Concern (OHAPC) which was established in 1984 when the significance and value of Oculina varicosa to important fishery species was recognized by the SAFMC. The OHAPC doubled in size when the Northern and Western Extensions were added with the implementation of Amendment 8 of the Fishery Management Plan in August 2015. As part of the OECA Evaluation Plan, a re-evaluation of the area is currently in progress. Data collected from the current grant will provide crucial data needed for this re-evaluation.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) and Department of Commerce through the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management Act have established eight deepwater Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), five deepwater Coral Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (CHAPCs), and the Oculina Coral HAPC along the outer continental shelf off the southeastern U.S. This project proposed to document and characterize the benthic habitat, benthic sessile biota, and fish populations within some of these protected areas and within the jurisdiction of the SAFMC.
In February 2009, the SAFMC implemented eight Type II MPAs between Cape Hatteras, NC and the Florida Keys to protect seven species of the deepwater snapper-grouper complex. The closures, however, will provide ecosystem-level benefits to the entire complex as well as protect the shelfedge reef habitat they utilize. These consist of five species of grouper: snowy grouper (Hyporthodus niveatus), yellowedge grouper (H. flavolimbatus), warsaw grouper (H. nigritus), misty grouper (H. mystacinus) and speckled hind (Epinephelus. drummondhayi), and two species of tilefish: golden tilefish (Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps) and blueline tilefish (Caulolatilus microps). The shelf-edge MPAs are known to contain reef habitat exploited by these five species of grouper as well as deepwater soft bottom habitat used by the two tilefish species. These species are considered to be at risk due to currently low stock densities and to life history characteristics which subject them to substantial fishing mortality.
This monitoring program for the MPAs will ensure the Council remains well informed of changes within reef fish populations and coral habitats associated with these MPAs. NOAA NMFS conducted preliminary examinations of five of these potential MPA sites in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Post-closure data were also collected in 2009, 2010, and 2012 – 2019. The MPAs afforded the opportunity to obviate the criticisms of comparing MPAs with adjacent open-to fishing areas by examining the MPAs for four years prior to the closures. Since monitoring began in 2004, this project has produced population density estimates of targeted reef fish species within the boundaries of five of the eight MPAs and adjacent control areas, before and after closure.