Resumen del producto

¹ Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas

The Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI) was founded in 1947 to promote the exchange of information on the use and management of marine resources in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean region. Fisheries management in this region is challenged by data-limited assessments and the need to improve survey monitoring programs. This is in part because most of the stocks are transboundary and any assessments are the result of mostly fishery-dependent information with a range of quality from a variety of sources. This challenge is compounded by the nature of reef fishes, which are patchily distributed, often aggregate in multi-species assemblages on or near high-relief seabed, and migrate daily and seasonally. To address these challenges, GCFI fosters collaboration among stakeholders to better study and manage fishery stocks and marine resources in the region. GCFI accomplishes this mission through annual conferences, initiatives, and workshops that bring together international expertise and perspectives from scientists, managers, and stakeholders.The GCFI Ocean Innovation Initiative grant, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Office of Science and Technology, endeavors to improve scientific information using innovative technologies for the sustainability of living marine resources in the region. In 2018, the GCFI-NOAA partnership sponsored a field study that integrates optic and acoustic technologies to improve research and survey operations in reef fish habitats, a 3-day training workshop, and a special session at the 71st Annual GCFI Conference in San Andrés, Colombia. Recent availability of innovative and cost-effective technologies (e.g., portable echosounders, stereo cameras, analytical methods and software) have emerged to potentially improve survey monitoring programs and assessments of reef fish populations. The primary objective of the field study was to collect optic and acoustic data to train participants of the GCFI workshop, and to present preliminary results of the field study and workshop during the GCFI special session.The field study was conducted 1-2 November 2018 on the west coast of Isla de San Andrés, Colombia. Each day, two vessels transited to the study site and cooperatively deployed a 3-point optic-acoustic mooring in ~20 m depth, near the shelf break. There, using a novel setup, echosounder and stereo-camera data were collected simultaneously from the same sampling volume. Meanwhile an echosounder survey was conducted to image the fish and seabed around the mooring site.Data from the field study was used to train students on procedures for acoustic detection, tracking, and target-strength (TS) measurements of fish; optical identification of fish species and estimations of their lengths, orientations, and counts; and optical-acoustic measurements of fish TS versus species, lengths and incidence angles. The training also included estimation of the acoustic deadzone height, acoustic and optic observation of animal behaviors, and comparison of optic and acoustic estimates of fish density.This report includes an overview of the survey considerations, the field study events, workshop activities and preliminary results, and special session presentations. Each of these activities benefited from the expertise provided by the international steering committee, the unique perspectives of students from around the world, and keen interest by conference attendees in the application of novel technologies to address their particular science and management needs. In a practical, tangible manner, these activities provided the GCFI community with training on cutting-edge technologies, experience combining methods, knowledge of practical approaches to surveys and analyses, and access to an international network of experts and collaborators. Collectively, these should serve to improve research and survey operations in reef fish habitats and thereby provide additional scientific information needed to bolster the sustainability of living marine resources in the Gulf and Caribbean region.

Palabras clave: stereo-camera; echosounder; EK80

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