Reef_Check_fish_surveys

The Reef Check Foundation’s California program (RCCA), trains, tests and certifies experienced recreational scuba divers to collect scientifically robust survey data on rocky reef species. All of RCCA’s volunteers go through a rigorous four-day training and annual recertification program. RCCA’s monitoring program gathers economically and ecologically important data, and educates the public about scientific methods and environmental stewardship. Over the baseline monitoring period of 2011/2012, RCCA conducted 91 surveys at its long-term monitoring sites in the South Coast Study Region. Many of these sites have been surveyed since 2006 or 2007 in order to track marine life populations and in anticipation of the establishment of MPAs in this study region. This metadata record documents the fish surveys that are part of RCCA’s South Coast MPA Baseline subtidal community surveys. Subtidal community structure surveys are conducted annually at sites during the summer or early fall, and quantify substrate type and relief, benthic cover, abundance of 73 species or species groups of macroalgae, invertebrates, and fishes. Spatial allocation of sampling is designed to measure year-to-year site-wide variability in species abundances and community structure. A site is defined as a fixed stretch of coastline, occupying approximately 250m. Each site is comprised of six core transects along which fish, invertebrate, algae and substrate are sampled and 12 additional fish transects. Transects are stratified across the two depth zones and fish transects are placed around the core transects. Fish sampling consists of visual surveys by scuba divers that record the number of individuals and their size (in three size classes) of 35 species of ecologically or economically important fishes on "transects" along the seafloor. Dimensions for all fish transects are 30m long x 2m wide x 2m high (off the seafloor).