The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is our most complex monitoring tool. The ODFW Marine Reserves program partners with the ODFW Marine Habitat Project, a partner research group within ODFW to conduct this type of monitoring in the marine reserves. The ROV is driven by an operator from a boat, controlled via an umbilical cable. The ROV can swim up, down, and around obstacles and follow along a transect line, like a SCUBA diver. It collects high-definition video that is later used to analyze fish, invertebrates and benthic habitat structure within the marine reserve and its associated comparison areas. The ROV is perfect for surveying rocky habitats all the way out to the deepest parts of the reserves.
ROV surveys were initiated prior to reserve closure at the Cascade Head Marine Reserve in 2013, one year before harvest restrictions began. Sampling is conducted in the marine reserve and its associated comparison areas, Cavalier and Schooner Creek (see methods Appendix for additional information about comparison area selection). We sampled at these sites over several years, with varied levels of success in achieving usable data - data that met requirements for view, visibility, and benthic habitat type (rocky substrates). These efforts results in three years of usable data for our analysis and inclusion in the synthesis report.
Data from ROV monitoring efforts can be used to explore questions about fish relative abundance from a non-extractive, fisheries-independent tool used to survey other deep reefs off the Oregon and the US West Coast. Analyses of community composition and relative abundance enable us to explore how fish communities change over time; and whether these changes are similar both inside the reserve and outside in comparison areas. For all data our main focus is exploring trends by site and year.