Dive Team Meeting and NOAA Research Diving Opportunity
We worked hard all year to learn species identification, scientific diving techniques, and photography—all valuable skills that lend themselves to research. Citizen science allows trained participants to contribute data to large, ongoing projects. We are thrilled to contribute to NOAA’s ecologically and economically important work on rockfish we frequently observe at Edmonds Underwater Park. Join our virtual Dive Team meeting on May 11 from 6:30-7:30 to catch up on our news and find out more about our unique opportunity to conduct citizen science with NOAA divers studying rockfish populations in the Pacific Northwest.
Rockfish (Sebastes spp.) are integral components of healthy marine ecosystems on the west coast of North America. They are well-respected as some of the longest living animals on Earth, with ages surpassing 100 years in some species. The rockfishes’ slow growth rates, uneven reproductive success, and late age of maturity make them vulnerable to overfishing. Unfortunately, throughout much of the 20th century, fishing pressures in Puget Sound led to 70% decline in abundance, resulting in a regional halt on recreationally and commercially targeting these fishes. Two species, bocaccio (S. paucispinis) and yelloweye rockfish (S. ruberrimus), are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act (NOAA 2017).
NOAA outlines a Rockfish Recovery Plan to restore the listed species to sustainable populations. One goal for these activities is to build an understanding of recruitment patterns (settling of juvenile rockfish from planktonic larval stage). Rockfish exhibit uneven recruitment success and to date, little is known what drives successful years in Puget Sound. A robust, long-term survey program on recently settled rockfish would address this data gap and help recover an integral component of the Puget Sound ecosystem by helping build more effective policy and targeting restoration activities.
Adam Obaza and Amanda Bird, of Paua Marine Research Group (PMRG), have worked with NOAA Fisheries since 2014 to build a survey program specifically for this data gap. They built this effort through partnerships with non-profit, academic, government agency and citizen divers. Though in its relatively early stages, results are already sufficient to be presented at academic conferences, published in reports and peer-reviewed outlets and will be used in NOAA's upcoming status review of listed rockfish species.
PMRG and NOAA are always looking for passionate, capable divers with scientific expertise or natural history knowledge to participate in this work to continue the important process of recovering rockfish! That is where our Dive Team plays a role. With our incredible vault of local diving knowledge, we will be partnering with them and help NOAA divers collect data in Edmonds Underwater Park for Young-of-Year surveys.
To kick off this project, we will have our virtual Dive Team meeting of next week, featuring Adam Obaza to share more with us on the rockfish study and detail what we will do as divers to contribute to science. Adam is a Senior Biologist at PMRG and also an underwater photographer. Join us on Zoom Tuesday at 6:30 PM PST and learn how to get involved. Contact us for the zoom link.
