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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Fisheries, Aquaculture and Living Resources
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1459277

Fish abundance is enhanced within a network of artificial reefs in a large estuary

Provisionally accepted
Charlotte E. Grimes Charlotte E. Grimes 1James W. Morley James W. Morley 1*Diandre′ N. Richie Diandre′ N. Richie 2Andrew R. McMains Andrew R. McMains 1
  • 1 Coastal Studies Institute, East Carolina University, Wanchese, North Carolina, United States
  • 2 University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Artificial reefs may be created within estuaries for multiple reasons, including habitat enhancement, oyster production, or recreational fishing. While traditional sampling in this environment is difficult due to complex structures and the high turbidity of estuaries, acoustic imaging sonar provides an effective alternative to measure abundance and size spectra of the fish community. We sampled eight artificial reefs in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, that are designated as oyster sanctuaries. At each oyster sanctuary, we sampled 26 boat positions along two transects using ARIS imaging sonar, which included control areas outside of the sanctuaries over featureless bottom. We found that fish abundance and mean length were greater within the oyster sanctuary boundaries, but did not observe any significant differences among artificial substrate types within the sanctuaries. Further, we found that fish abundance dropped to near background levels within 25 m outside of the oyster sanctuary edge. Size spectra analysis revealed that abundance was higher in the sanctuaries versus control areas for every length bin of the fish community (5 to 50 cm). However, the differences in abundance were greatest for 10 to 30 cm fishes. Our results can be coupled with previous research on species composition data to more fully understand the potential role that the Pamlico Sound oyster sanctuaries, and estuarine artificial reefs in general, serve as habitat and recreational fishing enhancement.Interest in how artificial structures function as habitat in marine ecosystems has increased in recent years, which has been motivated by multiple reasons (Becker et al., 2018). For instance, artificial reefs are often included in strategies to increase the amount of complex habitats in order to enhance fisheries production or fishing opportunities (Paxton et al., 2022;Chong et al., 2024). Indeed, the footprint of artificial structures in the ocean has increased dramatically during the last three decades, and a wide variety of structures are used (Paxton et al., 2024). Further, the

    Keywords: ARIS, acoustic imaging, sonar, Artificial reef, oyster restoration, Pamlico Sound, size spectra analysis, habitat

    Received: 03 Jul 2024; Accepted: 05 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Grimes, Morley, Richie and McMains. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: James W. Morley, Coastal Studies Institute, East Carolina University, Wanchese, 27981, North Carolina, United States

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