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Heceta Bank Project
Heceta Bank Project
Scientists
W. Waldo Wakefield, NOAA NMFS, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Fishery Resource Analysis and Monitoring Division; Robert
W. Embley, NOAA PMEL, Ocean Environment Research Division; Brian N. Tissot,
Environmental Science & Regional Planning, Washington State University,
Vancouver; and Mary M. Yoklavich, NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service,
Southwest Fisheries Science Center, are the principal investigators of
a NOAA National Undersea Research Program study of Hecata Bank, a
50 km-long rocky shoal on the outer shelf of central Oregon, and a major
fishing ground.
The project
combines historical data, high resolution seafloor imagery, and new survey
and analysis techniques to provide fishery scientists with a model approach
for characterizing and quantifying habitat associations of benthic animals
on a scale meaningful to the stock assessment of commercial species and
conservation of benthic communities. State-of-the-art survey strategies,
instrumentation, and data analysis techniques will be used to:
- Determine quantifiable relationships between groundfish
population and seafloor morphology/texture and the controlling factors
these such relationships.
- Changes that have occurred in the fish and megafaunal
invertebrate populations after a decade of intense commercial trawl fishing.
- Characteristics, and the extent of natural refugia in
the site.
CLICK
HERE to learn more about the interdisciplinary, habitat-based research
project on Heceta Bank.
last modified
06/07/2004
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