AN IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION OF RESOURCE FISHES WITHIN AND SURROUNDING A COMMUNITY-BASED SUBSISTENCE FISHING AREA AT HĀʻENA, KAUAʻI

Date
2019
Authors
Weible, Rebecca Marie
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Hunter, Cynthia
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Zoology
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Abstract
Nearshore fisheries in Hawaiʻi have been steadily decreasing for over a century. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been proposed as a method to both conserve biodiversity and enhance fisheries. I compared biomass and abundance of fisheries resource species inside and outside a recently established MPA on the north shore of the island of Kaua‘i. The Hāʻena Community Based Subsistence Fishing Area (CBSFA) employs a unique adaptive management strategy from which rules and regulations were established in 2015. In situ visual surveys of fishes, invertebrates, and benthos were conducted using a stratified random sampling design to evaluate the efficacy of the MPA, beginning in 2016. L50 values—defined as the size at which half of the individuals in a population have reached reproductive maturity—were used as proxies for identifying reproductively mature resource fishes both inside and outside the CBSFA. Surveys between 2016 and 2018 revealed significantly higher resource fish biomass outside the CBSFA boundaries, at deeper sites both within and outside the boundaries, as well as in pavement habitats compared with other habitat types. Although several species had higher biomass and abundances within the CBSFA boundaries, there was no strong evidence for a reserve effect at this time.
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Zoology, Benthic Habitat Complexity, L50, Reproductive Maturity, Resource Fishes, Traditional Management
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67 pages
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