How Can BRUVs and the Data They Generate Contribute to Aquatic Natural Resource Management Outcomes?

A new paper is just published in Marine Policy to discuss the BRUVs' contribution to aquatic natural resource management. The paper is entitled: " The BRUVs workshop – An Australia-wide synthesis of baited remote underwater video data to answer broad-scale ecological questions about fish, sharks and rays".

Harvey et al. (2021)

Many marine fish populations have declined due to the individual or cumulative impacts of increasing water temperatures, ocean acidification, overfishing and other human-induced impacts such as land run-off, dredging and habitat alteration. Some solutions may be offered by ecosystem-based fisheries and conservation management. However, understanding their effectiveness relies on the availability of good quality data on the size distributions and abundance of fish populations and assemblages, collected at appropriate temporal and spatial scales.

Baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVs) have become a popular tool for collecting data on fish assemblages across a range of depths and habitats. In Australia, this technique has been adopted by many different agencies and institutions, creating a unique opportunity to compile a continental-scale synthesis of fish data using a standardised sampling technique.

The workshop identified and prioritised several key research themes that would contribute to the conservation and sustainable management of focal species and broad assemblages. Our goal is to describe where and when the data were collected, the type of equipment used and how the imagery was analysed. We also discuss the types of questions that can be addressed by analysing these standardised datasets and the potential benefits to conservation and fisheries management.

The publication was led by Euan S.Harvey (Curtin University, Perth, WA), and our Lab Head Daniel Ierodiaconou contributed to the publication.

Congrats to Dan and the DU Marine Mapping Group!

To read the full article, click here.

Last edited on the March 28th, 2021.