The Seafloor Habitat Recovery Monitoring Project (SHRMP)

Principal Investigator:

James Lindholm, Ph.D., Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research

Co-Investigator:

Peter Auster, Ph.D., National Undersea Research Center at the University of Connecticut of Miami

Page Valentine, Ph.D., US Geological Survey

Timeline:

Initiated in April 1998, on-going

On May 1, 1998 the Western Gulf of Maine Closed Area (WGoMCA) was closed by the New England Fisheries Management Council to all commercial fishing of groundfish (such as Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua) and has remained closed since that date. The southwest corner of the closed area, which overlaps the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) for a total of 132 nm2, or 22% of the Sanctuary, presented the opportunity to study seafloor habitat recovery following anthropogenic disturbance by bottom-contact mobile fishing gear (such as trawls and dredges).

Combined sun-illuminated topographic and acoustic backscatter map of study area and station locations, including the boundaries of SBNMS and the WGoMCA. (Map produced by the US Geological Survey)

It is important to note that the closed area does not exclude all fishing activities, with commercial shrimp trawling and recreational fishing continuing to occur within the WGoMCA. As such, the WGoMCA represents an area of ìreduced impactî to compare to actively fished areas, rather than a true un-impacted reference area.

Four major seafloor habitats occur in the study area: piled boulders, gravel, sand, and mud. Photo Credits: Peter Auster/NURC-UCONN and Page Valentine/USGS.

The Seafloor Habitat Recovery Monitoring Project (SHRMP) was initiated in April 1998, one week prior to the closure of the WGoMCA, to investigate the recovery rates of seafloor habitat (physical and biogenic) and associated taxa (such as fishes) in the SBNMS following impacts from fishing. A total of eight stations were identified, in four major habitat types, inside and out of the overlap between the SBNMS and the WGoMCA. Sampling at the 8 stations is conducted annually using a range of technologies from remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and video drift cameras to collect photographic and videographic data, as well as traditional bottom grabs and naturalist dredges to collect samples from the seafloor. Other technologies involved in the project include side scan sonar and S4 current meters.

Side scan sonar image of trawl tracks in a deep mud basin with the study area.

The ìKrakenî remotely operated vehicle (or ROV), owned and operated by the National Undersea Research Center at the University of Connecticut. An ROV is tethered to a surface ship and operated by a pilot using controls on board the ship.

The SeaBED autonomous underwater vehicle (or AUV), owned and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. An AUV is pre-programmed to follow a particular course, and then is released over the side of a surface ship.

The objective of SHRMP is to compare the distributions of seafloor microhabitats and associated fauna in impacted and un-impacted sites with regard to fishing activity. The term microhabitat refers to both the physical substratum (such as sand waves, cobbles and boulders) and any associated structure-forming taxa (such as anemones, sponges and tube-forming amphipods). In addition to the organisms that form them, microhabitats are critical for a variety of fish species at various life history stages.

The SHRMP is a collaborative effort between PIER and SBNMS, the National Undersea Research Center at the University of Connecticut (NURC-UCONN), the US Geological Survey in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the University of Maine, and Brown University (Brown participated from 2001-2003). Financial support has been provided by SHRMP for scientists, undergraduates and graduate students (both Masters and Doctoral), post-doctoral fellows, and research technicians at each of these institutions. Technical support for the operation and maintenance of the equipment associated with the project is provided by NURC-UCONN. The projectís relational database was designed by, and is supported by, Perot Systems/Technology Planning and Management Corporation through a contract with SBNMS.

PIER gratefully acknowledges the support of NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary