%0 Journal Article %J Global Change Biology %D 2021 %T Increased connectivity and depth improve the effectiveness of marine reserves %A Jordan S. Goetze %A Shaun Wilson %A Ben Radford %A Fisher, Rebecca %A Tim J. Langlois %A Jacquomo Monk %A Nathan A. Knott %A Hamish A. Malcolm %A Leanne M. Currey Randall %A Ierodiaconou, Daniel %A David Harasti %A Neville Barrett %A Russell Babcock %A Bosch, Nestor E. %A Danny Brock %A Claudet, Joachim %A Clough, Jock %A Fairclough, David V. %A Michelle R. Heupel %A Thomas H. Holmes %A Charlie Huveneers %A Alan Jordan %A McLean, Dianne %A Mark Meekan %A Miller, David %A Newman, Stephen J. %A Matthew J Rees %A Roberts, Kelsey E. %A Saunders, Benjamin J. %A Conrad W. Speed %A Travers, Michael J. %A Treml, Eric %A Sasha Whitmarsh %A Wakefield, Corey B. %A Harvey, Euan S. %K fished species %K marine parks %K meta-analysis %K no-take marine reserve %K stereo-BRUV %X

Marine reserves are a key tool for the conservation of marine biodiversity, yet only ~2.5% of the world's oceans are protected. The integration of marine reserves into connected networks representing all habitats has been encouraged by international agreements, yet the benefits of this design has not been tested empirically. Australia has one of the largest systems of marine reserves, providing a rare opportunity to assess how connectivity influences conservation success. An Australia-wide dataset was collected using baited remote underwater video systems deployed across a depth range from 0 to 100 m to assess the effectiveness of marine reserves for protecting teleosts subject to commercial and recreational fishing. A meta-analytical comparison of 73 fished species within 91 marine reserves found that, on average, marine reserves had 28% greater abundance and 53% greater biomass of fished species compared to adjacent areas open to fishing. However, benefits of protection were not observed across all reserves (heterogeneity), so full subsets generalized additive modelling was used to consider factors that influence marine reserve effectiveness, including distance-based and ecological metrics of connectivity among reserves. Our results suggest that increased connectivity and depth improve the aforementioned marine reserve benefits and that these factors should be considered to optimize such benefits over time. We provide important guidance on factors to consider when implementing marine reserves for the purpose of increasing the abundance and size of fished species, given the expected increase in coverage globally. We show that marine reserves that are highly protected (no-take) and designed to optimize connectivity, size and depth range can provide an effective conservation strategy for fished species in temperate and tropical waters within an overarching marine biodiversity conservation framework.

%B Global Change Biology %V 1549 %8 21 May 2021 %G eng %U https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.15635 %9 Journal %! Glob Change Biol %R 10.1111/gcb.15635 %0 Report %D 2021 %T Initial baseline survey of deepwater fish in the Ningaloo Marine Park (Commonwealth waters) %A John Keesing %A Anthea Donovan %A Simon Collings %A Tim J. Langlois %A Emma Lawrence %A Russell Babcock %K baited remote video %K fish %K Ningaloo Marine Park %K recreational fishing %X

This technical report is likely to be of interest to policy makers, managers, researchers and the general public. The Ningaloo Marine Park (NMP) is one of the few commonwealth marine parks readily accessible to large numbers of recreational fishers in small vessels. This project aimed to determine the composition and abundance of fish, especially those targeted by recreational fishers in deeper areas of the NMP including the National Park Zone (NPZ) at Point Cloates. Fish species composition, abundance and size composition were studied using baited remote underwater stereo-videos. The study recorded a total of 169 fish species. Recreationally targeted fish were more abundant with increasing distance from boat ramps, even allowing for the fact that water depth increases with distance from shore. The relatively remote location of the NPZ off Point Cloates explains why there are generally more fish within the NPZ than more easily accessible areas of the NMP. The report recommends follow-up surveys every 3 years, to allow comparisons between fished and unfished given that this study has provided a baseline near to the time of the establishment of the NPZ.

%8 31 Oct 2021 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J PLOS ONE %D 2015 %T Assessing habitat use by snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) from baited underwater video data in a coastal marine park %A Terres, Maria A. %A E Lawrence %A G.R. Hosack %A Haywood, Michael D. E. %A Russell Babcock %E Fulton, Christopher J %X

Baited Underwater Video (BUV) systems have become increasingly popular for assessing marine biodiversity. These systems provide video footage from which biologists can identify the individual fish species present. Here we explore the relevance of spatial dependence and marine park boundaries while estimating the distribution and habitat associations of the commercially and recreationally important snapper species Chrysophrys auratus in Moreton Bay Marine Park during a period when new Marine National Parks zoned as no-take or “green” areas (i.e., areas with no legal fishing) were introduced. BUV studies typically enforce a minimum distance among BUV sites, and then assume that observations from different sites are independent conditional on the measured covariates. In this study, we additionally incorporated the spatial dependence among BUV sites into the modelling framework. This modelling approach allowed us to test whether or not the incorporation of highly correlated environmental covariates or the geographic placement of BUV sites produced spatial dependence, which if unaccounted for could lead to model bias. We fitted Bayesian logistic models with and without spatial random effects to determine if the Marine National Park boundaries and available environmental covariates had an effect on snapper presence and habitat preference. Adding the spatial dependence component had little effect on the resulting model parameter estimates that emphasized positive association for particular coastal habitat types by snapper. Strong positive relationships between the presence of snapper and rock habitat, particularly rocky substrate composed of indurated freshwater sediments known as coffee rock, and kelp habitat reinforce the consideration of habitat availability in marine reserve design and the design of any associated monitoring programs.
 

%B PLOS ONE %V 10 %8 28 Aug 2015 %G eng %U http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136799 %N 8 %! PLoS ONE %R 10.1371/journal.pone.0136799 %0 Journal Article %J Scientific Data %D 2015 %T Australian sea-floor survey data, with images and expert annotations %A Bewley, Michael %A Friedman, Ariell %A Renata Ferrari %A Nicole A. Hill %A Renae Hovey %A Neville Barrett %A Oscar R. Pizarro %A Figueira, Will %A Meyer, Lisa %A Russell Babcock %A Bellchambers, Lynda %A Byrne, Maria %A Williams, Stefan B. %K Biodiversity %K Coral reefs %K fisheries %K Ocean sciences %X

This Australian benthic data set (BENTHOZ-2015) consists of an expert-annotated set of georeferenced benthic images and associated sensor data, captured by an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) around Australia. This type of data is of interest to marine scientists studying benthic habitats and organisms. AUVs collect georeferenced images over an area with consistent illumination and altitude, and make it possible to generate broad scale, photo-realistic 3D maps. Marine scientists then typically spend several minutes on each of thousands of images, labeling substratum type and biota at a subset of points. Labels from four Australian research groups were combined using the CATAMI classification scheme, a hierarchical classification scheme based on taxonomy and morphology for scoring marine imagery. This data set consists of 407,968 expert labeled points from around the Australian coast, with associated images, geolocation and other sensor data. The robotic surveys that collected this data form part of Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) ongoing benthic monitoring program. There is reuse potential in marine science, robotics, and computer vision research.

%B Scientific Data %V 2 %P 150057 %8 10 Mar 2017 %G eng %U http://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201557 %! Sci. Data %R 10.1038/sdata.2015.57 %0 Journal Article %J PLOS ONE %D 2015 %T Large-Scale Geographic Variation in Distribution and Abundance of Australian Deep-Water Kelp Forests %A Marzinelli, Ezequiel M. %A Williams, Stefan B. %A Russell Babcock %A Neville Barrett %A Craig R. Johnson %A Alan Jordan %A Gary A. Kendrick %A Oscar R. Pizarro %A Smale, Dan A. %A Peter D. Steinberg %E Judi E Hewitt %X

Despite the significance of marine habitat-forming organisms, little is known about their large-scale distribution and abundance in deeper waters, where they are difficult to access. Such information is necessary to develop sound conservation and management strategies. Kelps are main habitat-formers in temperate reefs worldwide; however, these habitats are highly sensitive to environmental change. The kelp Ecklonia radiate is the major habitat-forming organism on subtidal reefs in temperate Australia. Here, we provide large-scale ecological data encompassing the latitudinal distribution along the continent of these kelp forests, which is a necessary first step towards quantitative inferences about the effects of climatic change and other stressors on these valuable habitats. We used the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) facility of Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) to survey 157,000 m2 of seabed, of which ca 13,000 m2 were used to quantify kelp covers at multiple spatial scales (10–100 m to 100–1,000 km) and depths (15–60 m) across several regions ca 2–6° latitude apart along the East and West coast of Australia. We investigated the large-scale geographic variation in distribution and abundance of deep-water kelp (>15 m depth) and their relationships with physical variables. Kelp cover generally increased with latitude despite great variability at smaller spatial scales. Maximum depth of kelp occurrence was 40–50 m. Kelp latitudinal distribution along the continent was most strongly related to water temperature and substratum availability. This extensive survey data, coupled with ongoing AUV missions, will allow for the detection of long-term shifts in the distribution and abundance of habitat-forming kelp and the organisms they support on a continental scale, and provide information necessary for successful implementation and management of conservation reserves.

%B PLOS ONE %V 10 %P e0118390 %8 02 Jun 2016 %G eng %U http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118390 %N 2 %! PLoS ONE %R 10.1371/journal.pone.0118390 %0 Journal Article %J IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine %D 2012 %T Monitoring of benthic reference sites %A Williams, Stefan B. %A Oscar R. Pizarro %A Jakuba, Michael %A Craig R. Johnson %A Neville Barrett %A Russell Babcock %A Gary A. Kendrick %A Peter D. Steinberg %A Heyward, A. %A Doherty, P.J. %A Mahon, Ian %A Johnson-Roberson, Matthew %A Steinberg, Daniel %A Friedman, Ariell %X

We have established an Australia-wide observation program that exhibits recent developments in autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) systems to deliver precisely navigated time series benthic imagery at selected reference stations on Australia’s continental shelf. These observations are designed to help characterize changes in benthic assemblage composition and cover derived from precisely registered maps collected at regular intervals. This information will provide researchers with the baseline ecological data necessary to make quantitative inferences about the long-term effects of climate change and human activities on the benthos. Incorporating a suite of observations that capitalize on the unique capabilities of AUVs into Australia’s integrated marine observation system (IMOS) [1] is providing a critical link between oceanographic and benthic processes. IMOS is a nationally coordinated program designed to establish and maintain the research infrastructure required to support Australia’s marine science research. It has, and will maintain, a strategic focus on the impact of major boundary currents on continental shelf environments, ecosystems, and biodiversity. The IMOS AUV facility observation program is designed to generate physical and biological observations of benthic variables that cannot be cost effectively obtained by other means.

%B IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine %V 19 %P 73 - 84 %8 01 Mar 2012 %U http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6174326 %N 1 %! IEEE Robot. Automat. Mag. %R 10.1109/MRA.2011.2181772