Fish populations and habitat recovery in the Oculina Research Reserve (1995 to 1999) off Ft. Pierce, FL

Christopher C. Koenig and Felicia C. Coleman
Florida State University, Department of Biological Science, Institute for Fishery Resource Ecology, Tallahassee, FL 32306 1100 CCK phone: 850-644-4509, FCC phone: 850-644-2019, fax: 850-644-9829, koenig@bio.fsu.edu, coleman@bio.fsu.edu

Christopher T. Gledhill and Mark Grace
National Marine Fisheries Service, Pascagoula Laboratory, P. O. Drawer 1207, Pascagoula, MS 39563 phone: 228-762-4591, fax: 228-769-9200, cgledhil@triton.pas.nmfs.gov, mgrace@triton.pas.nmfs.gov

Churchill B. Grimes
National Marine Fisheries Service, Tiburon Laboratory, 3150 Paradise Drive, Tiburon, CA 94920. phone: 415-435-3149, churchg@tib.nmfs.gov

Kathryn M. Scanlon
U. S. Geological Survey, 384 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA 02543 phone: 508-457-2323, fax: 508-457-2310, kscanlon@usgs.gov

Sandra Brooke
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, 5600 Old Dixie Highway, Ft. Pierce, FL 34946 (phone: 561-465-2400, fax: 561-468-0757, brooke@hboi.edu

Our research in the 92 nm2 Experimental Oculina Research Reserve (EORR) off Ft. Pierce, FL, USA since the 1994 closure to all bottom fishing has focused on (1) side-scan sonar mapping and GIS database development, (2) sediment geology, (3) habitat mapping, (4) experimental Oculina habitat restoration, (5) effects of artificial reef structure, and (6) video and acoustic monitoring of fish populations. Maps of pinnacle structures and sediment geology have been produced in a GIS format, but mapping of intact Oculina habitat has not yet begun. Initial submersible surveys in 1995 and subsequent ROV surveys indicate extensive, apparently trawl-induced damage of Oculina habitat. Oculina transplant-settlement-growth experiments, begun in 1996 to evaluate the potential for habitat restoration indicate high transplant survival rates, but low natural recruitment rates. Habitat recovery will take on the order of 30 years. Comparison of reef fish populations observed on intact Oculina habitat in 1995 with observations made on the same habitat in 1980 indicate the apparent fishing-induced loss or diminution of grouper spawning aggregations and large fish in general. Although recovery of grouper and snapper populations has been hampered by observed poaching in the EORR in 1997, indirect observations suggest that poaching has diminished or stopped.