Long-term fisheries monitoring and restoration in Charlotte Harbor - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Long-term fisheries monitoring and restoration in Charlotte Harbor David Blewett, Courtney Saari, Philip Stevens, and Tim MacDonald Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Fish and Wildlife Research Institute

FWC Fisheries-Independent Monitoring (FIM) Field Labs St. Johns River Choctawhatchee Bay & 2001 Santa Rosa Sound Apalachicola 1992 - 1997 1997 Cedar Key Northern Indian 1996 River Lagoon 1990 Tampa Bay 1989 Southern Indian River Lagoon 1997 Charlotte Harbor 1989 Florida Keys 1998 Charlotte Harbor crew

Typical annual fish sampling distribution Random sampling design Over 100 sampling sites per month Record data on all fishes and selected invertebrates, habitat, and physio- chemical conditions *Over 50 published studies in the last 10 years

Small fish sampling Shallow bay sets (flats and shorelines) Deep bay and river (>1.7 m) Rivers and tidal creeks 6-m otter trawl (3-mm mesh cod-end liner) 21-m center-bag seine (3-mm mesh)

Example of small fish sample

Large fish sampling along shorelines –183 m seine

Example of large fish sample

Long-term trends in sport fish abundance Relative abundance of common snook collected in 183 m haul seines (1996 – 2014)

Our program directives: Track abundance of fish in Florida’s estuaries Determine the effects of regulations Pinpoint essential fish habitat Investigate effects of variable freshwater inflow (Pre- and post-monitoring of restoration and disturbances) Photo by Jamie Darrow

FWC Charlotte Harbor Field Laboratory Science Publications Pre- and post- disturbance

Grant funding for the Blind Pass reopening project helped to increase our sampling efforts in and around Blind Pass

Recently started sampling tidal creeks in Charlotte Harbor (2014 – present)

Historic Seine Samples Prior to 2014 – (20 years of data) Tidal creeks were not a large part of our standard monthly sampling All bay, backwater, and river seine samples (n=11,368)

Developed a sampling program to collect larger juvenile snook in Charlotte Harbor to aid Snook Stock Assessment needs – 2014 (extended our river seine sampling to creeks) Adding age-1 snook abundance to compliment our adult snook data and to add a predictive measure for estimating stocks in the future Upper Charlotte Harbor

Coral Creek Restoration - SWFWMD Rotonda Cape Haze Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Coral Creek Catfish Creek Whidden Creek

Fisheries monitoring for pre-restoration of Coral Creek (June 2014 – July 2015) Partners - CHNEP , SWFWMD, DEP , Charlotte Co. DRP Coral Creek Upper Restoration Sampling Charlotte Coral Creek Cape Harbor Haze Two reference creeks

Coral Creek Study – Pre-restoration Differences in fish assemblages – 2 distinct groups emerge 2D Stress: 0 West-Coral Whidden East-Coral Lower-Coral Catfish MDS plot - circles represent 56% similarity ANOSIM R=0.33; P=0.001

Coral Creek Study Species differences SIMPER East-Coral, Catfish, and Whidden - more Rainwater Killifish, Silversides, Goldspotted Killifish, Pink Shrimp Lower- and West-Coral - more Bay Anchovy, Tidewater Mojarra, Clown Goby, Silver Jenny, Striped Mojarra, Redfin Needlefish

Coral Creek Study East Coral, Catfish, and Whidden creeks Wide and shallow systems with abundant seagrass • • Backwater marsh/seagrass species assemblage West and Lower Coral Creek • West – wide and shallow, lacks seagrass Lower – wide and shallow with deeper channelization • Upper Harbor creek species assemblage •

Tributary Sampling - over 25 different creeks 2016 - present Myakka River Peace River Charlotte Harbor

Great potential for doing a pre- and post- restoration study along the eastern shoreline Alligator Collect baseline fisheries, habitat, and water condition data Silcox (north and south) Reference Creeks = Blue Winegourd Zemel Bear Possibly six creeks impacted by the Flatwoods Hydrological Restoration Study Creeks = Yellow Yucca Pens Durden Two Pines

Sampling in Alligator Creek Alligator is similar to our rivers (4 samples per month) Silcox (north and south) Reference Creeks = Blue Winegourd Uneven monthly sampling effort in the all other tidal creeks Zemel (10 samples per zone, 3 zones) Bear Study Creeks = Yellow Yucca Pens Durden Two Pines

Number of seine samples collected in eastern Charlotte Harbor tidal creeks during Fisheries-Independent Monitoring (FIM) sampling during 2017 Study/ Creeks Reference January February March April May June July August September October November December FIM Total Alligator (mainstem) Study 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 24 Alligator (tributaries)Study 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 24 Zemel Canal Study 3 2 0 0 1 0 1 1 2 3 3 1 17 Bear Branch Study 1 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 14 Yucca Pens Study 1 1 1 4 0 1 3 2 2 0 2 2 19 Durden Study 2 1 1 1 1 2 0 1 0 2 1 2 14 Two Pines Study 2 2 2 1 2 2 0 3 3 1 1 2 21 North Silcox Reference 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 1 4 0 1 11 South Silcox Reference 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 Winegourd Reference 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 5 Total 14 11 12 15 11 10 11 14 14 15 12 13 152

General locations of sampling sites in 2018 Winegourd Creek, n=8

General locations of sampling sites in 2018 Yucca Pens, n=11 Durden Creek, n=17

Proposed sampling effort for the CH Flatwoods Initiative pre-restoration monitoring of fishes in 9 tidal creeks of the Charlotte Harbor estuary. Balanced monthly approach • Creek specific information for fishes • Number of seine samples Tidal Creek Study/ Reference State Funded Grant Funded Total Number Alligator (mainstem) Study 24 0 24 Alligator (tributaries) Study 24 0 24 Zemel Canal Study 13 11 24 Bear Branch Study 14 10 24 Yucca Pens Study 16 8 24 Durden Study 14 10 24 Two Pines Study 19 5 24 North Silcox 9 15 24 Reference South Silcox Reference 3 21 24 Winegourd Reference 5 19 24 141 99 240 approx. 60% approx. 40% 100% Also, uniform quarterly sampling may be another option to explore, which could bring grant costs down even further

Any questions/discussion?

Some preliminary results (just 1 year of data) 504 seine samples Juvenile Redfish are more abundant in Myakka Cutoff creeks and in the Peace Myakka River and Myakka rivers (Red) Peace River Myakka Cutoff Redfish Alligator Creek West Wall N=351 W Cape Whereas, juvenile Snook are more abundant in Cape Haze and Southeast W Cape Haze Wall creeks (Blue) NE Wall E Cape Haze Snook SE Wall N=544

Juvenile sport fish abundance in rivers and tidal creeks Rivers Gulf passes Rivers Gulf passes Red Drum Common Snook 7 4 Young-of-the-Year Young-of-the-Year 6 (10-99 mm SL) (10-99 mm SL) 3 5 4 2 3 Mean abundance (fish/100m 2 ) Mean abundance (fish/100m 2 ) 2 1 1 0 0 a e f r l E E e e l f o a Approx. Age 1 k c o N S p p a e f r l E E e e t l k a W a f o a t a a Approx. Age 1 k c o p p u N S a e g C C a t W k t a a a y P C u i W a e C C (100-300 mm SL) l g M l E W C M A y P i W (100-300 mm SL) l M l E W A 0.15 M 3 Region Region 0.10 2 0.05 1 0.00 0 a e f r l E E e e f o l k c o a p p N S t a e f r l E E e e k a t a W a a l u f o a a e k c o N S p p g C C t C k a W a a y P i t a W u M l l E a e g C C A W C M y P i W l M l E W M A Region Region