A Regional Assessment of Ecological Attributes in Rockfish Conservation Areas in British Columbia

We conducted a regional assessment of four ecological attributes (size, rockfish habitat, depth, and connectivity) in 164 Rockfish Conservation Areas (RCAs) in British Columbia. The purpose of this research was to evaluate how effective RCAs are at achieving their conservation objective, which is to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDFO - Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat. Research Document Vol. 2020; no. 2020/026
Main Authors Dunham, J S, Yu, F, Haggarty, D, Deleys, N, Yamanaka, L
Format Report
LanguageEnglish
Published Ottawa Fisheries and Oceans Canada 01.01.2020
Subjects
Bathymetric data
Benthic environment
Biological drift
Coastal oceanography
Coastal waters
Dispersion
Environmental protection
Fishery management
Fishing pressure
Home range
Kelp
Larval settlement
Life history
Living resources
Marine
Marine parks
Migrations
Moratoria
Nature conservation
Population number
Protected areas
Reefs
Seaweeds
Sebastes caurinus
Sebastes maliger
Sebastes melanops
Sebastes nebulosus
Sebastes nigrocinctus
Sebastes ruberrimus
Water depth
INE, Canada, British Columbia
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Summary:We conducted a regional assessment of four ecological attributes (size, rockfish habitat, depth, and connectivity) in 164 Rockfish Conservation Areas (RCAs) in British Columbia. The purpose of this research was to evaluate how effective RCAs are at achieving their conservation objective, which is to protect portions of inshore rockfish populations and their habitat from fishing pressure. Analyses were conducted using GIS information and existing habitat models. Attribute thresholds were derived from the literature. We took three approaches to our analyses. RCAs were scored based on: 1. individual attributes, 2. attributes summed together to form a single index of overall status, and 3. ideal attribute criteria to assess how the current network compares to a best case scenario. Generally RCAs were ranked by lowest score/poorest performer to help prioritize RCAs for further evaluation to determine whether a strategic change (boundary adjustment, relocation) might improve their conservation value to rockfish. Although inshore rockfish have small home ranges, some RCAs might be too small resulting in excessive spillover of mature fish. Available model-based data indicate some RCAs contain very little rockfish habitat and, therefore, may not support high abundances of fish which would limit population rebuilding efforts.
ISSN:1499-3848
2292-4272