Resource-fish surveys using timed-swims at fourteen coral reef ecosystem sites of West Hawaii in 2005 (NCEI Accession 0002627)

Effective management of coral reef ecosystems depends on adequate data on the status and trends of key ecosystem components. In spite of which, previous coral reef monitoring programs in the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) have been fragmentary and uncoordinated, with little or no overlap among programs in terms of survey site locations or habitat. The primary goal of this project was to develop and optimize an integrated reef-scale and ecosystem-scale monitoring approach for use by the state of Hawaii's aquatic resource management agency, the Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR), within the MHI. A combination of methods already applied by DAR with new ones developed and trialed by this project now form the basis of a standard 'method toolkit' for use by DAR monitoring staff. The key output of this project, an integrated statewide coral reef monitoring scheme, has been adopted by DAR, who have committed to implementing it, beginning in 2006.

Two new monitoring approaches: (i) 'Resource-Fish' surveys (targeting the large and mobile fishes which are primary targets of recreational and commercial food fisheries); and (ii) 'Benthic Characterization' (intended to be a medium-large scale survey approach capable of relatively easily generating benthic information suitable for improved understanding of fish distribution and community structure, and for detecting gross change in benthos) were developed and field trialed at sites in West Hawaii.

Extended fish trials of an 'integrated monitoring' approach, comprising both existing small-scale and the newly developed medium-large scale approaches were conducted at 14 sites in West Hawaii (Big Island) (each site surveyed 4 times for fish, once for 'Benthic Characterization'). Additionally, 'Resource-Fish' surveys using the newly developed methodology were conducted at 39 sites in Maui, and data from those surveys compared with an alternative approach focusing on the same fish groups which had been previously utilized at Maui sites (but not elsewhere in the state). 'Benthic Characterization' surveys were conducted at 14 sites in West Hawaii.

This dataset includes only the 'Resource-Fish' surveys. The 'Benthic Characterization' sets will be provided to the NOAA posterity archive at a later date.