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Using ecological evidence to refine approaches to deploying offshore artificial reefs for recreational fisheries

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posted on 2023-05-21, 04:43 authored by Blount, C, Valeriya KomyakovaValeriya Komyakova, Barnes, L, Smith, ML, Zhang, D, Reeds, K, McPhee, D, Taylor, MD, Macbeth, W, Needham, E
Artificial reefs have many applications but are best known for their deployments to enhance recreational fisheries by creating new habitat in areas where natural reef is otherwise limited. The expectation is that fish assemblages will take up residence on artificial reefs and that these assemblages will become at least similar, if not more diverse and abundant, to those on natural reefs. Although designed, purpose-built artificial reefs are becoming more widely used in support of recreational fisheries and many of the historic issues have been resolved, conservation practitioners and managers still face challenges as to the type, number, and arrangement of structures and where to deploy them to maximize benefits and minimize risks. The ecological literature was reviewed to develop and enhance contemporary principles of artificial reef best practices for utilization. Our review identified optimal shapes, vertical relief, void spaces, and unit arrangements for increasing volumes and diversity of catch to recreational fishers and we provide a tool for identifying the least constrained areas for artificial reef deployment. We suggest; (a) monitoring of noncatch motivators in combination with quantitative indicators of the fishing activity (e.g., catch rate and effort) will provide the best understanding of success or failure of an artificial reef deployment; (b) choosing target species for informing purpose-built artificial reef designs to be reef-associated, demersal, philopatric, territorial, and obligatory reef species that are desired by local recreational fishers; and (c) considering the ecosystem services provided by artificial reefs beyond those associated with recreational fishing.

History

Publication title

Bulletin of Marine Science

Volume

97

Issue

4

Pagination

665-698

ISSN

0007-4977

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

Rosenstiel Sch Mar Atmos Sci

Place of publication

4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, USA, Fl, 33149

Rights statement

© 2021 Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science of the University of Miami. This article is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Licence. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Fisheries - recreational marine; Marine biodiversity

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