Deployment of standard monitoring units for the recruitment of fishes, SMURFs, in Trinidad Bay, California

Rockfish (genus Sebastes) are ovoviviparous with pelagic larvae that may travel great distances before settling on shallow reefs where they become substrate-dependent juveniles.Artificial reefs can be used to monitor juvenile recruitment by providing settlement habitat.Juvenile recruitment in this context refers to the onshore delivery of juveniles from pelagic larval habitats to nearshore reefs.In this study, submerged artificial reefs, Standard Monitoring Units for the Recruitment of Fishes, SMURFS, were used to examine juvenile rockfish recruitment in northern California.Two SMURFs were deployed in Trinidad Bay, California, between June and September of 2010 and 2011.SMURFs were fished on a weekly basis.The objectives of the study were to 1) determine the effectiveness of using SMURFs to examine juvenile rockfish recruitment in northern California, 2) provide a baseline description of the abundance, diversity and succession of all species sampled, 3) compare the physical oceanographic conditions between 2010 and 2011, and 4) analyze the relationships between rockfish abundance and physical parameters within and between each field season.The SMURFs deployed in Trinidad Bay, California, provided suitable settlement habitat for juvenile fish.In total, nine species of fish, representing five families, recruited to SMURFs over the duration of the study.Species sampled included: northern clingfish resources towards my education.I would also like to thank Dr. Robert VanKirk and Dr.