[Coral-List] Reef and Fishery Assessment of Navassa Island

[Jennifer Schull]

The fourth CRCP-funded reef and fishery assessment cruise to Navassa 
Island National Wildlife Refuge occurred 24 Apr – 7 May 2009 aboard the 
NOAA Ship /Nancy Foster/. Completed reef assessment objectives included 
reeffish visual census at 69 stratified random sites with photo-quadrats 
at 36 of these sites to characterize benthic cover. Among these random 
sites, only 7 were observed to host ESA-listed staghorn coral (small, 
isolated colonies) while invasive Pacific lionfish were observed at 
three. Of the almost 29000 individual fish recorded in visual censuses, 
only 15 individuals were of large grouper species. Tagged ESA-listed 
elkhorn coral colonies were re-surveyed and all colonies along the 
southwest coast were mapped. This population remains in excellent 
condition. For the first time, the project was able to obtain pilot 
catch data (two boat-days worth were identified and measured) from the 
Haitian fishers who frequent Navassa waters. Lastly, real-time 
documentation of the cruise was provided by a web log 
(noaanavassa09.blogspot.com) which garnered over 700 unique visitors 
over the course of the cruise. POC: margaret.w.miller at noaa.gov