Abstract

Acoustic tagging and monitoring methods were used to evaluate a marine protected area (MPA) established 10 years ago within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS). The objective was to document finfish movement patterns, habitat use and determine spatial applicability of reserve design using forty eight sonic receivers (VR2s) deployed in a series of rings around large habitat features within and offshore of the Western Sambo Ecological Reserve (WSER). Movements of thirty nine acoustically tagged snappers and groupers were tracked between June 2006 and April 2007. Groupers that were captured on patch reefs appeared to remain on patch reefs; however, fish captured in the fore reef zone and from a deeper offshore bar exhibited significant movement between these habitats. Preliminary results indicate that the large reserve design (30 km2) is effective in providing adequate protection of patch reef habitat for groupers. However, fish that utilized the fore reef zone often moved across the southern reserve boundary to and from the open fishing area of the offshore bar. To improve information on habitat usage and movement, future work will focus on the spur and grove sections of the fore reef and integrate these results with the broad-scale movements established in the WSER and offshore bar.

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