Data are from underwater visual surveys of fish stocks at 23 sites in West Hawaii. Survey sites are 8 to 14 m deep and are all located on reef shelves with moderate to high Porites compressa cover, the predominant habitat type at that depth on West Hawaii reefs, and the key habitat for the majority of fishes harvested for the aquarium trade. The survey program began as the West Hawaii Aquarium Project (WHAP) but since 2004 has continued as part of DAR's Main Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Monitoring Program.
Support sustainability of ecosystem resources
NOAASupplemental:Entry_ID: Unknown Sensor_Name: SCUBA Source_Name: manual Project_Campaign: Operational DAR Function Originating_Center: Division of Aquatic Resources, Division of Lands and Natural Resources, State of Hawaii Storage_Medium: MS Excel and MS Word Online_size: 29360 kbytes
ground condition
Dataset credit required
74-380 B Kealakehe Pkwy
Division of Aquatic Resources, Division of Lands and Natural Resources, State of Hawaii
see lineage, process step
none
Surveys are conducted in 'rounds', each site being surveyed once per round. 4 to 6 rounds have been conducted per year and in total 39 rounds have been conducted. Each survey of a site generally involves 4 divers (2 pairs), who between them conduct (i) 'WHAP' surveys of the four 25m *4m permanently-located transects per site; and (ii) 10-minute freeswims (presence-absence swims). The WHAP fish protocol is based on fixed transects which can be closely surveyed for targeted species of all size classes, and where variability among fish populations can be related to fine-scale habitat variability among transects and sites. Six stainless steel eyebolts have been permanently drilled and cemented into the bottom to establish reference locations for four permanent 25m transects at each site. For efficiency during WHAP they have been situated in an H-shaped design at each study site. A transect width of 4m is utilized based on previous sampling experience with coral reef fishes in Hawai'i. The species, size class (in 5cm slots), and in some cases phase (e.g. 'recruit') of all fishes on transects are counted by a pair of divers in each survey. Divers first lay out transect lines between end pins, then swim one rapid swim to count mobile and mid-water species and the a return swim in which divers slowly and carefully swim the transect carefully recording fishes in and around the benthos. Transect lines are taken up after all transects have been completed. In addition to the fixed transects at each site, a 10 minute roving free-swim survey is done by a team of two divers after the fixed transect surveys are completed. The divers range about the areas adjacent to transects (~5000m2) recording the presence of fish species which were not observed on the transects.
I. Original files Directory: ../../data/original filename comment DAR West Hawaii Fish Surveys.xls MS Excel with 3 spreadsheets DAR WHAP Fish Surveys Notes.doc documentation Note: The DAR administrator has determined that DAR will distribute all raw WHAP-survey data which is more than 5 years old, but only summarized versions of newer data. The MS Excel data file contains 3 worksheets: (1) Raw Transect Data (1999-2000)- raw data from 1999 and 2000 (all information given broken down by transect and by observer; and including size or age-class information); (2) Summary Transect Data (2001-5)- summarized data from 1999 and 2000 (data pooled by site, no information given on transect. Observer, age-phase or size class); (3) 10min Free-Swim Data - being all data from the 10 minute presence-absence survey of the area surrounding the transects. Important point-- only fishes NOT observed on transects are included in the presence-absence survey worksheet (so need to pool free-swim and transect data to get complete presence-absence list). II. NODC Archive Files Directory: ../../data/nodc filename comment sites.jpg WHAPFishSurveysNotes.doc copy of original doc file (see ../original) WHAPFishSurveysNotes.htm redundant HTML copy WHAPFishSurveysNotes.txt redundant ASCII text copy WHawaiiFishSurveys.xls copy of original xls file (see ../original); sheets dumped as Comma Separated Variable (CSV) files WHawaiiFishSurveys_10MinFreeSwimData.csv 10min Free-Swim Data WHawaiiFishSurveys_RawTransectData1999_2000.csv Raw Transect Data (1999-2000) WHawaiiFishSurveys_SummaryTransectData2001_2005.csv Summary Transect Data (2001-5)
National Coastal Data Development Center, Building 1100
NOAA makes no warranty regarding these data, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. NOAA, NESDIS, NODC and NCDDC cannot assume liability for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in these data, nor as a result of the failure of these data to function on a particular system.
1000 Pope Road, MSB 316
Dept. of Oceanography
University of Hawaii at Manoa
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