Ten Years of Rockfish Surveys in the Strait of Juan De Fuca

For decades, biologists from the Seattle Aquarium have been informally monitoring bottom fish on rocky reefs near Neah Bay, Washington. Based on increasing concern over the long term stability of bottom fish populations in this area by both state and federal agencies, the Aquarium formalized monitoring in 2005 with diver-based video surveys to quantify rockfish  diversity and abundance over time. Divers performed 100-meter video transects, devised to be highly repeatable, to assess diurnally active bottom fishes over time. Transects were conducted in the Strait of Juan de Fuca for ten years in August from 2005-2014 at five permanently marked sites. Density and diversity of bottom fish species were determined by biologists counting fish via the archived video. Over the past ten years, there has been no significant difference in diversity and density of adult rockfish among sites or years, but there have been significant young of the year (YOY) rockfish recruitment events in 2006, 2008 and 2010, termed “jackpot recruitment events”. Young of the year jackpot recruitments were significantly correlated with lower sea surface temperatures. Significant recruitment events varies because larval survival depends upon changing conditions such as climate, abundance of predators, oceanic currents, and chance events.