Groundfish Cooperative Research Projectspecies Composition, Relative Abundance, and Movements of Important Nearshore Fish Species Along the North Central California Coast
Starr RM and Green K. 2007. Groundfish Cooperative Research Projectspecies Composition, Relative Abundance, and Movements of Important Nearshore Fish Species Along the North Central California Coast. University of California Sea Grant Extension Program. Moss Landing, CA
In 2005 and 2006, we conducted a study to gather information about species targeted in commercial and recreational fisheries near Bolinas, CA. Our goal in this project was to combine the resources of fishermen and university scientists to learn more about populations of nearshore fishes in an area that is heavily fished by boats from the San Francisco Bay area, and provide information that will be useful for policy discussions about marine protected areas in this region. We worked with charter boat skippers and local anglers to catch, tag, and release fishes. In the process, we learned about the distribution, relative abundance, and movements of heavily fished species, and shared this information with other marine resource users. Our specific objectives in this study were to: • Utilize commercial passenger fishing vessel skippers, crews and vessels, and anglers from recreational fishing clubs to tag fish and collect biological data near Duxbury Reef, • Estimate relative abundances of species commonly caught near Duxbury Reef, • Estimate movements of tagged fish, • Collect biological and life history information from nearshore species, and • Discuss project results with commercial and recreational fishermen in the area. Fish tagging results showed that most individuals (81%) of all fishes were recaptured less than 1 nm from the release location. However, one black rockfish was recaptured near crescent City, CA and two black rockfish were recaptured in Oregon.