Reef Check kelp forest long-term MPA monitoring: fish data

Reef Check California (RCCA) fish surveys consist of visual surveys performed by scuba divers. At each site, buddy teams of divers conduct eighteen 30 m x 2 m benthic transects, to monitor key species of fish. Each site is divided into two "zones" by depth (shallow 5-12 meters and deep 12-18 meters - or from offshore to inshore at sites with little depth variation) to assure that samples are distributed across the face of a reef from inshore to offshore. Fish are identified to species, when possible their sex or live stage is recorded, and individual's total length is estimated to the nearest centimeter.The long-term California MPA boundary and project info tables referenced in this dataset can be found as a separate dataset here: https://opc.dataone.org/view/doi:10.25494/P6V884