310 
Fishery Bulletin 114(3) 
30 1 
25 : 
20 - 
o 
10 
s 
• Brown rockfish, summer 
I Brown rockfish, spring 
Copper rockfish, summer 
10 <20 
20 <30 30 <40 
Length Class 
>40 
Figure 7 
Total numbers (summed over 3 transects) of visually apparent late-stage 
gravid brown and copper rockfish (Sebastes auriculatus and S. carinus, 
respectively) by length class (total lengths in centimeters) observed 
during seasonal surveys at Point Heyer Artificial Reef, Puget Sound, 
WA, from summer 2005 through summer 2012. Note: Late-stage gravid 
copper rockfish were observed only during the summer, and late-stage 
gravid brown rockfish were observed only in the spring and summer. 
15 
14 
13 
12 
6 II 
10 
9 
Nearshore 
□ 
□ 
1 
♦ 
► 
rrp 
Offshore 
I 
□ 
Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring Summer 
Fall 
Winter 
Figure 8 
Temperatures at the near- and offshore reef margin, by season, at Point 
Heyer Artificial Reef, Puget Sound, WA, during 2006-2007. Whiskers 
indicate the minimum and maximum temperatures recorded, boxes cap- 
ture the first and third quartiles, and the mean is denoted by a diamond 
shape. 
their nearshore point of departure, then the behavior 
may be characterized as emigrative (Heape, 1931). 
Moreover, if emigrant populations lose their cohesive- 
ness once they leave the reef, the seasonal return of 
itinerant individuals to the nearshore environment 
would result in an annual shuffling of members among 
geographically proximate, or possibly even distant, 
populations. Whether emigrants wander as groups or 
individuals, their return to the nearshore environ- 
ment could serve to replenish local populations with 
harvest-size Ashes, and may provide a buffer against 
localized overfishing provided they ar- 
rive from populations that are capable 
of sustaining a net export of individu- 
als (i.e., source populations sensu stric- 
to Pulliam, 1988). Conversely, local 
populations made up predominantly of 
seasonal migrants may be more vulner- 
able to depletion because replenishment 
would be less dependent on harvest- 
sized immigrants and more dependent 
on reproductive success and juvenile re- 
cruitment, both of which are known to 
be highly variable for rockflshes (Lea- 
man and Beamish 1984; Ralston and 
Howard 1995; Ralston et ah, 2013). We 
note here that the aforesaid statement 
lies in contrast to Mathews and Bark- 
er’s (1983) view that local populations 
of “migratory” rockflshes would be less 
vulnerable to depletion; however, their 
opinion appears to have been formed 
around an implied working definition 
of migration that includes any type of 
movement beyond a narrowly defined 
geographic area, and without regard 
to whether the same fish are coming 
and going. This contrast in conclusions 
serves to underscore the importance of 
adequately defining the terms used to 
characterize fish movements. 
We could not determine whether the 
brown rockfish recaptures identified by 
Hess et al. (2012) that were at liberty 
for more than one year remained on the 
reef year-round or left the reef in the 
winter and returned during the summer 
(i.e., migrated), although only one of the 
fish was recaptured in the winter. The 
recapture data indicate some degree of 
reef fidelity for some brown rockfish at 
PHAR. The relatively low abundance of 
brown rockfish on the reef during the 
winter, the year-round sampling ef- 
fort, and the high rate of recapture in 
relation to effort lend substantial cre- 
dence to the notion of seasonal move- 
ments by individuals on and off the reef 
over spatial scales that exceed reported 
maximum home ranges. Further, the 12 
genetically identified brown rockfish that were encoun- 
tered as late-stage gravid individuals in multiple years 
indicate that more than one spawning by the same fish 
occurred at the same location (assuming the fish car- 
ried their larvae through to parturition). 
Diver effects on fish behavior can be a significant 
source of bias when producing estimates of standing 
stock or community structure by using noninstanta- 
neous UVCs (i.e., strip transects) (see Bozec et al., 2011 
and references therein). In this study, we assumed that 
bias due to diver effects remained constant over time 
