OR - ‘Living laboratories’: Volunteer anglers reel in data as scientists study Oregon's marine reserves
The waters of Oregon's marine reserves are off-limits for anglers, but a select group got the chance to fish in the protected areas last week.
GARIBALDI, Ore. — At docks up and down the Oregon Coast, it’s not uncommon to see anglers gathered in the early morning hours, discussing fishing strategies and getting their gear ready for a day on the water.
That was the scene in Garibaldi on Tuesday as a group of 10 anglers huddled in the cold near the Norwester, a charter fishing boat scheduled for an eight-hour trip north of the small town.
But while the scene may have been common, the day’s destination was not. The group was headed to the Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, a 12-square-mile plot of ocean off the coast of Oswald West State Park where fishing and ocean development has been prohibited since 2016.
And the anglers weren’t fishing for fun or for food. They were fishing for science, explained Lindsay Aylesworth, program leader for the marine reserves program with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“These are really living laboratories off of our coast,” Aylesworth said. “We're tracking changes over time, so we're trying to understand what this protection affords these communities here.”
There are five marine reserves along the Oregon Coast: Redfish Rocks south of Port Orford, Cape Perpetua near Yachats, Otter Rock north of Newport, Cascade Head near Lincoln City, and Cape Falcon.
Tuesday’s fishing trip to the Cape Falcon reserve was part of the state’s ongoing hook-and-line survey effort to collect data about sea life and ocean conditions in the protected area.
As the Norwester prepared to get underway from the Garibaldi dock, research assistant Ryan Fields laid out the plan for the day. The boat would perform 15 minute “drifts” at areas laid out in a grid on a map of the reserve. The anglers would get instructions on exactly when to drop their lines and when to reel them up so the state would have reliable data on how many fish were caught. Then the results from the reserve would be compared with similar surveys outside of protected waters.
But to get data on what kind of fish are in the reserve, you have to catch them; and that proved difficult as anglers started dropping their lures on Tuesday.
In the first few drifts, just a small handful of fish came aboard the Norwester: several lingcod, a small cabezon and a few black rockfish.
During the down time, Aylesworth took the time to expand on why the reserves are important.
“We want to make sure that the fisheries we have here in Oregon remain healthy,” she said, noting that as the ocean changes, the data collected will be a valuable measuring stick. “It's good for us to be able to track these changes, that way we can understand which ones are associated with changing ocean conditions and which ones are associated with putting in these areas for protection.”
And the reserves are also about answering some big questions, Aylesworth said.
“How do they compare to the areas where fishing is open? Are we seeing the same changes which might be due to larger oceanographic processes that are happening at a larger scale than the marine reserves?” she said.
