4.1 Article

Promising signs of regeneration of blue cod and oyster habitat changed by dredging in Foveaux Strait, southern New Zealand

Journal

Publisher

TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/00288330.2001.9517052

Keywords

Parapercis colias; blue cod; Ostrea chilensis; oysters; Foveaux Strait; fish habitat; epifaunal reefs; oyster shell reefs; dredging; habitat degradation; rotational fishing; mitigation; habitat enhancement; marine protected areas

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Epifaunal reefs in Foveaux Strait are oyster (Ostrea chilensis Philippi, 1845) habitat. One hundred and thirty years of oyster dredging has diminished the complexity and distribution of these reefs. Commercial densities of blue cod (Parapercis colias (Forster in Bloch and Schneider, 1801)) were discovered on epifaunal reef habitat in 1989 and became the focus of a major blue cod fishery. We document habitat changes that followed the closing of the oyster fishery in 1993 and interactions between the blue cod and oyster fisheries after the oyster fishery was reopened in 1996. Evidence from blue cod fishers and oyster surveys suggests that the benthic habitat of some oyster beds regenerated in the absence of dredging and that the relative density of blue cod, and then oysters, rebuilt to commercial levels. Benthic habitat was modified once more when oyster dredging restarted and the relative density of blue cod on oyster beds fell again. The observations suggest that rotational fishing of oysters could mitigate the effects of dredging on habitat and that marine protected areas could expedite habitat recovery. Increasing habitat complexity and blue cod density on a reef of oyster shells formed by an oyster fisher suggests that habitat enhancement might remedy effects of dredging. The questions raised by the observations could be answered by management experiments on the scale of the fisheries.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.1
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available