Daniel J. Pondella

Increasing the production of marine fishes is a tractable goal with wide socioeconomic and ecological appeal. Ecosystem restoration projects that increase the amount of suitable habitat in an area and/or habitat quality enhance both fishery production and ecosystem services. Fortuitously, there are a wealth of studies documenting the specific examples of restoring these services from successful artificial reef deployments. Considering the need to create future structures in a variety of scenarios and locations, it is salient to summarize the mechanisms through which increased secondary production occurs and the design considerations. To achieve this objective maximizing ecological processes including the provisioning of planktonic and epibenthic food resources and related trophic pathways, and those associated with life-stage specific habitat use (e.g., recruitment, juvenile survival, reproductive output) are critical mechanisms of productive reefs. We synthesized this information by addressing the structural and ecological theory of artificial reef design based upon physical attributes such as complexity, vertical relief, habitat heterogeneity, and spatial scale. Within this framework we summarized the mechanisms that may be used to increase secondary fish production and propose a general theory for optimization of these variables.

California's oil platforms are nearing the end of their productive lives and therefore will be decommissioned in the near future. These structures have been shown to be important habitats for both settlement and growth for reef fishes. Important information on the biological effects (i.e., loss of biomass and production) of different decommissioning options has not yet been explored in detail. An important step in the assessment of these different decommissioning options is to look at the potential loss of fish production and habitat under the different alternatives. Using the large amount of information available on fish abundances at these structures, we have created a model to estimate the standing stock of fishes and production that would be lost because of both partial (removal from surface to 85 ft) and complete removal (the 2 decommissioning options being considered). Complete removal of a platform will likely eliminate most of its fish biomass; however, this study has shown that for rockfishes, which settle predominantly below 85 feet (26 m) and move deeper as they age, partial removal through topping would leave more than 90% of the fish biomass at the deeper platforms. Modeling of larval dispersal suggests that platforms provide an important opportunity for recruitment of fish larvae and that many larvae produced near the platforms would settle elsewhere in the region. The results presented here indicate that, even if topped, the potential contribution of platform habitat to biological resources (e.g., fish production) in this region is significant. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2015;X:000–000. ©2015 SETAC

Aim  To examine the uniqueness and relationship of islands in the San Diegan Province using reef fishes.Location  Pacific coast of Baja and Southern California.Methods  Quantitative scuba surveys and statistics were used. Between June 2000 and August 2002, the nearshore rocky‐reef fishes of eight southern California and Baja California islands were quantitatively surveyed. The islands surveyed were: Santa Cruz, San Nicolas, Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina, San Clemente, North Coronado, San Martin and San Benito. These islands span the latitudinal range of offshore islands within the San Diegan marine province. This regional scale approach provided not only the first quantitative description of rocky‐reef fishes at five of these islands, but also allowed comparisons with known biogeographical patterns.Results  Here we discuss the distribution and abundance of 84 conspicuous rocky‐reef fishes from 35 families. In general, the richness, diversity and composition of fish assemblages at these islands were found to reflect previously described biogeographical processes. The rocky reef fish assemblages of all islands in the survey were found to be significantly distinctive form each other. Phenetic analyses revealed two clusters. San Clemente, Santa Catalina and North Coronado clustered as a warm‐water assemblage in the middle of the San Diegan Province. The remaining islands grouped together as a cold‐water assemblage, despite the geographically disjunct position of the islands within this cluster. The relatedness of islands was independent of distance. Examination of the most common fish species at all islands revealed that while some conformed to the north–south trending density distributions predicted by previous investigators, the distribution of others could not be explained by latitude or temperature regimes. No single pattern explained the density of fishes at all islands. Both the rock croaker, Pareques sp., and flag cabrilla, Epinephelus labriformis, were observed at San Benito during these surveys, representing northern range extensions and may be indicators of the warming trend observed in this marine province.Main conclusion  For nearshore rocky‐reef fishes, the islands of the San Diegan marine province are distinct and their interrelatedness is independent of the distance between them.

The abundance of two embiotocids ( Embiotoca jacksoni and Rhacochilus vacca ) was surveyed continually from 1974 to 1998 on the breakwaters comprisi