Characterizing Untrawlable Habitats with a Stereo Video Lander

Rockfish conservation areas (RCAs) were implemented in 2002 to protect overfished species along the west coast of the United States. These closures are delineated by depth contours and restrict the use of specific bottom-fishing gear. The rocky habitats that many of these overfished species utilize, however, are under-sampled in the annual coast-wide trawl surveys. Also, the distribution and abundance of fishes inhabiting high-relief rocky areas within the RCAs are not commonly sampled. To address these issues, we developed a non-extractive method to study species in high-relief rocky areas that are of concern to fisheries managers. We designed and built a video lander that we deployed along the central coast of California at depths between 80-250 m.  The video lander system contains paired video cameras that rotate 360° to enable an area-swept density estimate of demersal fishes.