Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Mar;104(3):825-836.
doi: 10.1111/jfb.15592. Epub 2023 Dec 10.

Colonization, diversity, and seasonality of fishes at pelagic fish aggregating devices

Eric V C Schneider  1   2 , Brendan S Talwar  1   3   4 , Shaun S Killen  2 , Samantha Russell  1 , Travis E Van Leeuwen  5 , David M Bailey  2
Affiliations

Colonization, diversity, and seasonality of fishes at pelagic fish aggregating devices

Eric V C Schneider et al. J Fish Biol. 2024 Mar.

Abstract

The pelagic zone of the ocean can be a challenging environment in which to conduct research and as a result we lack the robust baseline abundance and diversity data, compared to what is available in more accessible coastal habitats, to be able to track changes or stressors to the biota in this environment. Many large-scale fisheries target pelagic fish, and much of the information available on these species is based on fisheries-dependent data that may be biased towards hotspots and commercially valuable fishes. Here, a long-term video and visual fish survey was conducted on two subsurface moored fish aggregating devices (FADs) in the pelagic waters of the central Bahamas to determine the feasibility of using moored pelagic FADs as tools for collecting fish abundance and diversity data. A wide range of species was documented, including large migratory fish that are the focus of commercial and recreational fisheries, and smaller often overlooked species on which little abundance or seasonality information exists. We found that FADs colonize quickly and reach a peak stable (albeit seasonally cyclical) abundance and diversity within the first several months after deployment. Species richness was higher in video surveys, but abundance was higher in visual surveys, except for sharks. Our results highlight the need to tailor survey methods to fit the context and study objective, and provide further evidence for the importance of fisheries-independent data in monitoring pelagic species.

Keywords: FAD; colonization; diversity; fish aggregating device; fish assemblage; pelagic.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Alevizon, W. S., Gorham, J. C., Richardson, R., & McCarthy, S. A. (1985). Use of man-made reefs to concentrate snapper (Lutjanidae) and grunts (Haemulidae) in Bahamian waters. Bulletin of Marine Science, 37(1), 3-10.
    1. Brehmer, P., Sancho, G., Trygonis, V., Itano, D., Dalen, J., Fuchs, A., Faraj, A., & Taquet, M. (2019). Towards an autonomous pelagic observatory: Experiences from monitoring fish communities around drifting FADs. Thalassas, 35, 177-189.
    1. Brooks, E. J., Brooks, A. M. L., Williams, S., Jordan, L. K. B., Abercrombie, D., Chapman, D. D., Howey-Jordan, L. A., & Grubbs, R. D. (2015). First description of deep-water elasmobranch assemblages in the Exuma sound, The Bahamas. Deep-Sea Research II, 115, 81-91.
    1. Campbell, M. D., Salisbury, J., Caillouet, R., Driggers, W. B., & Kilfoil, J. (2018). Camera field-of-view and fish abundance estimation: A comparison of individual-based model output and empirical data. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 501, 46-53.
    1. Chapuis, L., Collin, S. P., Yopak, K. E., McCauley, R. D., Kempster, R. M., Ryan, L. A., Schmidt, C., Kerr, C. C., Gennari, E., Egeberg, C. A., & Hart, N. S. (2019). The effect of underwater sounds on shark behaviour. Scientific Reports, 9, 6924.

LinkOut - more resources