Initial Baseline Survey of Deepwater Fish in the Ningaloo Commonwealth Marine Reserve (2018 - 2020)

The Ningaloo Commonwealth Marine Reserve (NCMR) lies offshore and adjacent to the state-managed Ningaloo Marine Park (Figure 1). The reserve extends for ~300 km along the west coast and the depth ranges from 50 to 500 m. The NCMR is zoned IUCN Category II – Recreational Use Zone and no commercial fishing is permitted. However, an increasing number of recreational fishers are choosing to move offshore from the state managed Ningaloo Marine Park into the deeper waters of the NCMR. This is concerning because very little is known about the composition and abundance of demersal fish the habitats and depths encompassed by the Commonwealth reserve. It is also one of the few Commonwealth Marine Reserves readily accessible to recreational fishers. We propose a non-extractive survey to establish baseline composition and abundances of fish in the NCMR, and align this with standardised surveys of fishing effort. The survey will employ Standard Operating Procedures for all mapping and sampling activities, as developed in NESP Project D2. Approximately 200 BARUV drops will be conducted in 2019.