66513
Reef Visual Census (RVC) Fish Survey Protocol for Atlantic, U.S. Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico
RVC Protocol for Atlantic, U.S. Caribbean and FGBNMS
Document
Published / External
37041
National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Assessment of fish communities in the Florida Reef Tract from 2018-06-05 to 2018-12-17 (NCEI Accession 0208321)
Data Set
Completed
2016-05-19
2018
The National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) is a broad-spatial snapshot for reef condition (i.e., fish species composition/density/size, benthic cover, and coral density/size/condition) to provide context for local-scale studies of tropical reef ecosystems. Data collection will occur at stratified random sites where the sampling domain for each region (e.g., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), Flower Garden Banks and Florida) is partitioned by habitat type and depth, sub-regional location (e.g., along-shelf position) and management zone. NCRMP is intended to supplement local monitoring efforts by providing large-scale data on reef fishes and the benthos.
NCRMP fish surveys conducted in the US Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico region (Puerto Rico, USVI, Flower Garden Banks) have traditionally used the Belt Transect method. In the Pacific and Florida regions, fish surveys are conducted using the Reef Visual Census (RVC) method. To standardize fish data collection methods and for comparison purposes, all jurisdictions will be using the RVC method for conducting fish surveys beginning in 2016. This protocol will describe fish surveys conducted in the U.S. reefs in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
The goal of the fish community surveys is to collect and report information on species composition, density, size, abundance, and derived metrics (e.g., species richness, diversity) using the RVC point count method (Brandt et al., 2009) in a stratified random sampling design on hardbottom and coral reef habitats in the U.S. coral reef jurisdictions. While all jurisdictions will use the RVC method, slight adjustments must be made in order to account for regional implementation nuances.
In the U.S. Caribbean, RVC will be implemented by a team of two divers, each conducting a 7.5 m radius point count fish survey. The team of two divers serve as a site replicate and data are averaged between both surveys to reduce variability. In Florida, two teams of two divers are deployed and each is averaged respectively.
Distributor
2018
Organization
National Centers for Environmental Information - Silver Spring, Maryland
NCEI-MD
NOAA/NESDIS E/OC SSMC3, 4th Floor, 1351 East-West Highway
Silver Spring
MD
20910-3282
(301) 713-3277
2018
https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/archive/arc0118/0169400/2.2/data/0-data/NCRMP_Florida_2016_Fish/NCRMP_Florida_2016_Fish/DataDocumentation/Protocols/Collector_instructions.pdf
2018
Organization
National Centers for Environmental Information - Silver Spring, Maryland
Collector_instructions.pdf
2018-01-16T17:56:00
PDF
PDF - Adobe Portable Document Format
924K
Uncompressed
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http://doc.arcgis.com/en/collector/
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Where You May Download documentation on the "Collector" Application
gov.noaa.nmfs.inport:66513
Lee Weinberger
2022-01-27T02:30:04
SysAdmin InPortAdmin
2023-10-17T16:12:35
2023-01-23
Southeast Fisheries Science Center
SEFSC
75 Virginia Beach Drive
Miami
FL
33149
USA
(305)361-5761
www.sefsc.noaa.gov
8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. EST
1001
Public
No
2022-02-28
1 Year
2023-02-28