386 



Fishery Bulletin 104(3) 



platform we did not survey 

 in the midwaters above the 

 shallowest horizontal beam 

 (at depths of 15-34 m). 

 Thus, some of the potential 

 bocaccio nursery grounds 

 were not sampled. Fourth, 

 for those platforms where 

 visibility was too poor for 

 us to sample the bottom or 

 shell mound (A, B, C, and 

 Hillhouse), we estimated 

 YOY bocaccio abundances 

 only for that part of the 

 platform (the midwater) that 

 could be surveyed. However, 

 although visibility was too 

 poor to conduct operations 

 on the bottom, we could see 

 high densities of bocaccio in- 

 side the platform below the 

 submersible at several plat- 

 forms when we conducted 

 midwater surveys. Thus, on 

 these platforms, it is highly 

 likely that the YOY bocaccio 

 aggregation extended well 

 below the level of our sur- 

 veys and that these aggre- 

 gations contained substan- 

 tially more of these fishes 

 than we estimated. 



We also estimated the 

 level of recruitment of YOY 

 bocaccio in 2003 to natu- 

 ral reefs using data from a 

 variety of sources. In this 

 overview, we included 1) our 

 submersible surveys con- 

 ducted at depths at which 

 YOY bocaccio may reason- 

 ably recruit (down to about 

 100 m), 2) a scuba survey 

 conducted by D. M. Schro- 

 eder, and 3) data from near- 

 shore rocky reef fish surveys 

 conducted by other research- 

 ers. The latter surveys were 

 conducted by using scuba at 

 depths of 25 m or less. 



Results 



YOY bocaccio were observed at seven of the eight plat- 

 forms we surveyed. We observed a total of 10,785 YOY 

 bocaccio in the survey (Table 1). We saw no YOY bocaccio 

 at depths of 20 m and less, none at 226 m, and relatively 

 high densities at depths between about 25 and 80 m. 

 Mean YOY bocaccio densities varied between platforms. 

 Platform Grace (368.0 fish/100 m2) and Gilda (95.2 



fish/100 m^) harbored the highest densities, whereas 

 no YOY bocaccio were observed at Platform A (Fig. 3). 

 Using the methods detailed in Love,'^' we estimated that 

 there was a minimum of 433,682 YOY bocaccio at the 

 seven platforms (Table 2). 



Using the model STATC (details of the model are giv- 

 en in MacCall'), which is the current basis for fishery 

 management under the Pacific Fisheries Management 

 Council, we determined that the 433,682 YOY bocaccio 

 living around these platforms constitute about 20% of 



