Fish and benthos baseline surveys were made at 155 sites of the near shore region off Kahekili Beach Park, West Maui in January and August, 2008. Survey sites were grouped into six broad habitat categories, and herbivore biomass in a range of functional groups was calculated per habitat category. Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resource (HDAR) is currently working to establish a Herbivore Fisheries Management Area (HFMA) [n.b. previously titled as Kahekili Ecosystem Recovery Area] encompassing reef areas adjacent to Kahekili Beach park in West Maui. The goal of the proposed HFMA is to increase the reef's capacity to resist a phase shift from coral to macroalgal domination by prohibiting the take of herbivorous fish and sea-urchins. Fish surveys were performed by scientists of HDAR and the Hawaii Cooperative Fishery Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Hawaii (UH). Benthic surveys were conducted by scientists of the Department of Botany, UH.
The aims of this project were to provide survey design, analytical, and other scientific support to staff of Hawaii DAR to: (1) assist with the design and implementation of a statistically- and scientifically-valid baseline of pre-HFMA establishment conditions on the Kahekili reef; and (2) utilize new and existing data generated by HDAR and partners, from survey programs in Maui and elsewhere, to draw broader conclusions about the relationships between local herbivore stocks and benthic algal communities (particularly in terms of reefs' vulnerability to macroalgal overgrowth).
NOAASupplemental:Entry_ID: Unknown Sensor_Name: SCUBA Project_Campaign: Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative Originating_Center: Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resource Storage_Medium: MS Excel, MS Word, PDF Reference: None Online_size: 4,400 kbytes Resource Description: NODC Accession Number 0065597
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Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative
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Fish Surveys: Surveys were haphazardly located on hardbottom areas within the proposed Kahekili ERA boundaries with the aim of broadly covering the full extent of the area and with adequate replication within different habitat zones. Surveys were conducted from a small boat. Survey teams comprising two divers each were haphazardly dropped over hardbottom areas throughout the proposed HFMA. The divers would then swim straight down to the nearest suitable habitat (hardbottom large enough to lay a survey transect in); one of the survey divers tied of the starting point of the survey transect and the other recorded the transect start location using a GPS in a waterproof bag attached to a float. As much as possible, surveys were always run parallel to the shoreline running approximately northwards, and in all cases a transect bearing was taken by one divers. In total 155 surveys were conducted throughout the proposed HFMA. Survey transects were of 25m length. One of the divers conducted fish surveys using methods closely based on those used by NOAA-CRED throughout the state of Hawaii (so data would be comparable with larger-scale data sets): species, number and size (in 5cm slots) was recorded for all fishes larger 15 cm total length (TL) within a 4-m wide belt centered on the diver as they laid out the25 m transect tape. The diver would then turn around and resurvey the transect line, recording species, number and size of all fishes smaller than 15 cm TL in a 2m wide belt centered on the transect line. The other survey diver followed the fish survey diver, and conducted a photoquadrat survey of the benthos under the transect line, and then recorded all sea-urchins with a 1m-wide belt, during a return swim down the transect line. Additional details available in: data/1-data/FY07_HCRI-NOAA_Report_Ivor_Williams_Kahekili.pdf Benthic Surveys: Surveys were conducted in January and August 2008 to establish a baseline of herbivorous fish, sea urchin, and benthic composition for the Kahekili HEA. In January and August a total of 89 and 69, respectively, 25m transects were surveyed for herbivore populations and benthic composition. In January the sites were distributed with replicate sites within 3 depth ranges as follows: 1.5-3m (n= 30; shallow fore reef), 4-8m (n= 40; mid-depth fore reef)and 8.5 -10m (n= 19; deep fore reef). Benthic surveys were comprised of 17 random photoquads (0.5m x 1.0m) per 25m transect (1,513 and 1,173 total photoquads in January and August respectively).The photoquads from the January survey were analyzed with PhotoGrid software with 50 random points per picture which were identified by substrata (i.e. turf, limestone, sand, coral rubble, and basalt) or systematically (i.e. genus species for coral, algae, and sea urchins); the data are currently presented as percent of functional group (turf algae, algae, other, urchins, invertebrates, sand, crustose coralline algae (CCA) and coral) per site.
DIRECTORY ORGANIZATION, FILE NAMES AND FORMATS: Directory data/0-data/ contains the files as acquired from the originators. Directories and files in 0-data/File: Kahkili Survey Data for NOAA NODC.xlsx Format: MS Office Excel 2007 Content: In-situ data for Benthic and Fish Surveys and Site Coordinates Columns: self-explanatory File: FY07_HCRI-NOAA_Report_Ivor_Williams_Kahekili.docFormat: MS Office Word 97 - 2003 Document Content: Final Project Report acquired from Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative Author: Ivor Williams Focus: Fish surveys File: Smith-FY07-HCRI-NOAA-Final-Report.pdfFormat: Adobe Acrobat PDF/A Content: Final Project Report acquired from Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative Author: Celia Smith Focus: benthic surveys Directory data/1-data/ contains files created by NODC. The Excel file, Kahkili Survey Data for NOAA NODC.xlsx, was exported to comma-separated version (CSV) format. One file was made for each sheet. The filename is the original file suffixed with the sheet name, and all blanks are replaced by underscores "_". These files are:Kahkili_Survey_Data_for_NOAA_NODC_Benthic_Data.csvKahkili_Survey_Data_for_NOAA_NODC_Fish_Data.csvKahkili_Survey_Data_for_NOAA_NODC_Site_Coordinates.csvThe data are self-described in the column headers. Note: Code in "...Fish_Data.csv":Four letter codes are used that consist of the first two letters of the Family name followed by the first two letters of the Taxa name. Note: in "...Site_Coordinates.csv", the latitude position is in error for Order 77, replace "22" with "20".
none
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