Progress report summarizing the reef fish sampling, PCB - Earthjustice

Fishing baits were positioned over the Oriskany Reef while the vessel maintained
position with engines running and without anchoring. Baits were lowered to
approximate depths of the flight deck (130-145 feet) and also on or near the seafloor
adjacent to the ship at a maximum depth of 212 feet. Lines were reeled in
periodically to allow the vessel to re-position itself over and immediately adjacent to
the Oriskany Reef, just as commercial charter vessel would operate. The vessel
remained on station until all fish were processed, and double checked to ensure the
target sample quota had been reached. The sampling vessel then proceeded directly
to port to allow for prompt offloading and storage of samples.
Fishing commenced during daylight hours, usually beginning between 0830-0900
Central Time once the vessel arrived on site and equipment was readied. Fishing
immediately ended as soon as the minimum number of 30 recreationally targeted
legal size fish were caught and retained, usually by 1200 hrs rarely as late as 1400-
1500 hrs. Night sampling was not conducted since recreational fishing on the
Oriskany Reef would typically also have been a daylight endeavor. Sampling
operations were postponed and rescheduled if sea conditions were predicted to
exceed 2-4 feet or wind speeds exceeded 15 knots.
The decision not to continue fishing past the point when the required quota of
targeted legal size fish were harvested was also intended to reduce unnecessary
discard mortality caused by acute or chronic barotrauma injury and additional
susceptibility of temporarily disabled fish to predators such as great barracuda,
bottlenose dolphins and large greater amberjack. Unless there was a specific
secondary activity to be undertaken such as fish tagging, fishing effort during the
first seven sampling rounds concluded immediately upon procuring the first 30 legal
size fish that would have been typically caught by a recreational head boat or
charter boat. There was no high grading of fish, which is the practice of discarding a
previously caught and retained legal size dead reef fish for a larger size specimen or
a different species. All targeted fish were retained in the order caught, provided
that the target number of at least 15 red snapper was procured out of the minimum
thirty specimens sampling round quota. Sample round #8 (November 2010) was the
only sampling round in which multiple legal size reef fish (mainly vermilion
snapper) were discarded live upon capture in an effort to stay within the target
quota (increased to 39) and still attempt to procure a minimum of 15 red snapper.
I (D) (6) Sampling Seasons
Sampling was conducted in two seasons annually. Sampling was conducted during
late fall/winter (4 events), usually in November, although a single December 2006
and a February 2008 sampling round also took place. The cooler weather sampling
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