Progress report summarizing the reef fish sampling, PCB - Earthjustice

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Commercial fish trap use in the Gulf of Mexico has been banned for over a decade. Reef fish ecologist, Dr. Chris Koenig, PhD. (Florida State University faculty), who had previously conducted similar fish collections from the Gulf of Mexico using similar gear, volunteered to accompany FWC and ECMRD staff for the first fish sampling effort at the Oriskany Reef in December 2006. The traps were baited with cut Boston mackerel and Peruvian squid secured to the trap funnel and trap interior with plastic tie wraps. Traps were deployed on both the Oriskany Reef’s flight deck (initially135 feet deep.) and on the seafloor (212 feet) along-side the Oriskany and were recovered with an electric trap puller following a soak time of 2-3 hours. On one of the December 14, 2006 trap deployments, Dr. Koenig mounted a video camera on the top of one of the chevron traps and directed at the trap entrance to observe fish activity as the fish approached the trap entrance as it sat on the flight deck. All fish noted in this video were red snapper. The use of banned commercial chevron fish traps, out of season fishing, and collecting fish over the recreational bag limit for research purposes in federal waters of the Exclusive Economic Zone where the Oriskany Reef is located required a Letter of Authorization (LOA) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries (National Marine Fisheries Service) Southeast Regional Office, St. Petersburg, Florida. FWC secured the LOA on November 15, 2006 and it was carried as required on all subsequent sampling trips by the FWC Project Manager. Subsequent amendments were made to the LOA as sampling progressed to add additional vessel platforms as needed and to secure permit time extensions. Round #2 The second sampling trip to the Oriskany Reef on April 12, 2007 utilized an 85 foot offshore FWC law enforcement patrol vessel, J.J. Brown, with a mounted trap puller. This was intended to be a transitional trip utilizing both commercial chevron traps and hand held rod and reel angling gear, similar to the equipment used by private fishermen or charter boats bottom fishing in the area. If there was sufficient rod-and-reel angling success on this trip, our objective was to move exclusively on subsequent trips to rod-and- reel sampling to better mimic the type of recreational fishing activity that would normally take place on the Oriskany Reef. The traps were to be used as a hedge against failure to achieve the targeted 30 legal size reef fish on this second trip. 28 | P age
During sample round #2 all four chevron traps fishing on and immediately adjacent to the Oriskany Reef became entangled in the reef and could not be recovered before dark and the later onset of rough weather. After the parting of one buoy line in efforts to retrieve a trap, all GPS trap locations were marked and the un-buoyed and three remaining buoyed traps were temporarily abandoned in the face of forecast deteriorating weather (9-13 foot. seas). A trap recovery effort to eliminate potential buoy and line navigational hazards and the traps continuing to passively fish short-term as “ghost” traps required writing a trap recovery plan, hiring two dive charter vessels and a team of technical divers to return to the Oriskany Reef (Horn and Miller, 2007). Two fish traps were recovered by technical divers using lift bags to raise traps from 212 feet of water since neither dive boat had any mechanical trap retrieval capability. The traps were too heavy to be safely hauled up by from the bottom by hand. The other two chevron traps, one buoyed and one no longer buoyed were not located even though their coordinates had been previously recorded, the traps and buoys themselves were marked, and the technical diving community was alerted. FWC never recovered the two lost traps. Use of the two recovered chevron traps was discontinued in our monitoring program. The traps were donated to the FWC Fisheries Independent Monitoring Program at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. I (D) (4) Commercial Bandit Fishing Gear On the first December 14, 2006 sampling trip, commercial vertical hook-and-line “bandit” fishing gear was also employed (Figure 5). Bandit gear consisted of several hundred yards of stainless steel strand main line wound onto an open face metal drum about 14 inches in diameter attached to a hollow metal vertical pole mounted in the vessel gunwale. The pole had a short (2.5 feet long) flexible horizontal arm with a pulley at the end through which the steel line from the drum was run to be attached to a 300 pound test monofilament leader. Along the monofilament leader were a series of brass three-way swivels evenly spaced at two foot intervals along the leader. From each of 15 three-way swivels tied into the main monofilament leader extended a one foot long monofilament side leader or ganglion Figure 5. Commercial vertical hook-and-line “bandit” fishing gear with red snapper catch aboard the F/V Margie Ann. 29 | P age
Page 1 and 2: Progress report summarizing the ree
Page 3 and 4: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In compliance wit
Page 5 and 6: LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page No. 1.
Page 7 and 8: I (A) (1) EPA Oriskany Reef PCB Tie
Page 9 and 10: validate the Navy developed PCB fat
Page 11 and 12: that “the numbering standard for
Page 13 and 14: ship material leachate experiments
Page 15 and 16: solid PCB containing materials woul
Page 17 and 18: EPA review included: 1) a human hea
Page 19 and 20: I(C)(6) PCB Containing Materials On
Page 21 and 22: I(C) (8) Oriskany Reef Created In a
Page 23 and 24: fishes for the Monitoring Work Plan
Page 25 and 26: I (D) (2) Fishing Vessel Sampling P
Page 27: long from the top to the mouth of t
Page 31 and 32: The rod and reel manpower sampling
Page 33 and 34: was intentionally scheduled after t
Page 35 and 36: weren’t running after each fish w
Page 37 and 38: actually shipped to GERG on Februar
Page 39 and 40: samples during Sampling Rounds 1-8
Page 41 and 42: harvesting at least 15 legal size r
Page 43 and 44: attraction as expressed by an incre
Page 45 and 46: Of these 10 reef assessment dives,
Page 47 and 48: assessments which were limited to t
Page 49 and 50: not considered target species for a
Page 51 and 52: have had any PAH levels approaching
Page 53 and 54: Oriskany, and one recapture at a
Page 55 and 56: ed snapper season commencement. The
Page 57 and 58: Table 8a. List of reef fish species
Page 59 and 60: Oriskany Reef during Sampling Round
Page 61 and 62: Species Composition of Oriskany Sam
Page 63 and 64: The GERG lab reported their receipt
Page 65 and 66: pectoral fins of the blackfin snapp
Page 67 and 68: Trophic level or position Trophic p
Page 69 and 70: that means after five years only 3%
Page 71 and 72: II (D) (1) (c) Red Snapper Discussi
Page 73 and 74: 1,000,000 ΣPCB (pg/g) a. Sample Da
Page 75 and 76: The PCB levels measured from red sn
Page 77 and 78: fins relatively short, not reaching
Page 79 and 80:
Results of PCB analysis by sample d
Page 81 and 82:
ody, these spots giving a yellow-st
Page 83 and 84:
II (D) (3) (c) Red Porgy Discussion
Page 85 and 86:
cheeks that are speckled with brigh
Page 87 and 88:
II (D) (4) (c) Whitebone Porgy Disc
Page 89 and 90:
(common) name. The first spine is l
Page 91 and 92:
II (D) (5) (c) Gray Triggerfish Dis
Page 93 and 94:
The Scamp inhabits continental shel
Page 95 and 96:
Results of PCB analysis by sample d
Page 97 and 98:
species was not among the first 30
Page 99 and 100:
elieved to be unlikely since most o
Page 101 and 102:
trip less than 15% of the time due
Page 103 and 104:
II F (6) (b) Current Florida Marine
Page 105 and 106:
assessment, technological feasibili
Page 107 and 108:
III Oriskany Reef Monitoring Projec
Page 109 and 110:
Fishbase.org (Internet site). 2011.
Page 111 and 112:
Ingram, G.W., Jr. and W.F. Patterso
Page 113 and 114:
Patterson, W. F., J. H. Cowan Jr, e
Page 115 and 116:
Thompson, M.J., W.W. Schroeder, and
Page 117 and 118:
Table 2. FWC Fish Census data taken
Page 119 and 120:
Table 4. Fish census data taken by
Page 121 and 122:
frogfish Antennarius sp.
Page 123 and 124:
eef butterflyfish Chaetodon sedenta
Page 125 and 126:
Vermilion snapper Rhomboplites auro
Page 127 and 128:
OR-RS-042 Red Snapper 4/12/2007 HnL
Page 129 and 130:
OR-RS-155 Red Snapper 11/18/2009 Hn
Page 131 and 132:
Table 14. Tissue sample characteris
Page 133 and 134:
Table 15. Percent composition of to
Page 135 and 136:
Table 16b. Percent composition of t
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Progress report summarizing the reef fish sampling, PCB - Earthjustice

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