Abstract:

The early stages of marine fishes are probably the most susceptible life stages to any oil spill effects, especially considering the timing overlap between peak reef fish recruitment and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This timing overlap would suggest that reef fish larval and juvenile stages (e.g. red snapper) may have suffered higher mortalities from the recent Gulf oil spill resulting in subsequent year-class failures. The study area was approximately 20-50 km south of Mobile Bay, Alabama, U.S.A., at depths of 20 to 40 m. Small reef habitats (0.3 x 1.2 x 1.2 m) were constructed and secured to the substrate with ground anchors. These “small” reefs have shown very high recruitment of young age-0 and age-1 fishes based on surveys in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Reefs were surveyed for abundance and size estimates of associated reef fish communities with SCUBA visual, video and digital camera surveys. We built 30 reefs in July 2011, and complete fish surveys on all reefs in August-September 2011. We also completed surveys in June 2011 on the reef design that were built in 2010 as part of another project.

Suggested Citation:

Stephen Szedlmayer. 2016. Reef recruitment of fishes from inshore survey sites off the Alabama coast, Summer 2011. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N78G8HNG

Purpose:

To assess the abundance of larval and juvenile reef fishes after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Data Parameters and Units:

Szedlmayer MESC 2011 recruitment reef surveys.xlsx: Date (Day-Month-Year) Reef: Reef identification code Type/Group: Relative location of reef (870r= , NNP= , IW=Inshore West, IC=Inshore central, IE=Inshore East) Common name of fish species observed Species/Scientific name of species observed Row 1-Columns F-AI: Size classes of fish observed (1 cm increments) Number of fish observed in each size class for each species Szedlmayer MESC Recruitment Reef Metadata 2011.csv Depth (ft) Latitude (decimal degrees) Longitude (decimal degrees) Deploy Date (Day-Month-Year) Type/Group: Relative location of reef (870r= , NNP= , IW=Inshore West, IC=Inshore central, IE=Inshore East) Sampling Sites: Site Latitude (decimal degrees) Longitude (decimal degrees) PD061 30.1166 -87.96915 PD062 30.11695 -87.96367 PD063 30.11255 -87.96328 PD064 30.10767 -87.96358 PD065 30.10332 -87.96352 PD066 30.09897 -87.96335 PD067 30.1124 -87.9691 PD068 30.1079 -87.9693 PD069 30.10348 -87.9691 PD070 30.09877 -87.96888 PD071 PD072 PD073 PD074 PD075 PD076 PD077 PD078 PD079 PD080 PD081 30.11661 -87.95878 PD082 30.11211 -87.95878 PD083 30.10761 -87.95878 PD084 30.10312 -87.95878 PD085 30.09863 -87.95878 PD086 30.09863 -87.95358 PD087 30.10313 -87.95358 PD088 30.10762 -87.95358 PD089 30.11212 -87.95358 PD090 30.11662 -87.95358 PD091 30.11814 -87.64835 PD092 30.11364 -87.64835 PD093 30.10914 -87.64835 PD094 30.10464 -87.64835 PD095 30.10015 -87.64835 PD096 30.10015 -87.64315 PD097 30.10464 -87.64315 PD098 30.10913 -87.64315 PD099 30.11364 -87.64315 PD100 30.11814 -87.64315 PD101 30.12416 -88.2708 PD102 30.11967 -88.2708 PD103 30.11517 -88.2708 PD104 30.11068 -88.2708 PD105 30.10618 -88.2708 PD106 30.10618 -88.2656 PD107 30.11068 -88.2656 PD108 30.11517 -88.2656 PD109 30.11967 -88.2656 PD110 30.12416 -88.2656

Individual Files: