A fish’s-eye-view: accessible tools to document shellfish farms as marine habitat in New Jersey, USA

Details

• Journal Title:
  Aquaculture Environment Interactions
• Personal Author:
  Shinn, JP ; Munroe, DM ; Rose, JM
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; NEFSC (Northeast Fisheries Science Center)
• Description:
  Shellfish growers routinely observe fish and invertebrates interacting with their aquaculture gear. To quantitatively assess these interactions, underwater action cameras (GoPro®) were used to document fish and invertebrate activity in and around floating oyster bags, cages, and a natural marsh habitat on an oyster farm in the Little Egg Harbor region of Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, USA, in 2018. A free and open-source event-logging software was used to analyze video files. A total of 21 species from 4 phyla were identified across all days and sites. Nekton were quantified from continuously recorded video using the MaxN abundance metric, defined as the maximum number of individuals of a given species present within each 1 min segment of video. Species of both ecological and economic importance in the local ecosystem used the 3 intertidal habitats. Abundance and community composition observed around oyster cages differed from that around floating oyster bags and marsh edge; the latter 2 habitats were not significantly different. Juvenile fish were frequently observed, suggesting that the oyster farm may provide similar natural history functions as other natural marsh habitat.
• Source:
  Aquacult Environ Interact 13:295-300
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.3354/aei00407
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New Jersey
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/31753/noaa_31753_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1000.88 KB]
• Collection(s):
  National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:8f17df5bf50f8b20e74852054ee3f3b028e32c4153d3a4b808c1b8ff600b9787