Research Seminar – Owen Mulvey-McFerron

The UNC-CH Department of Marine Sciences and UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) presents a research seminar from graduate student, Owen Mulvey-McFerron. This event will be held on Wednesday, December 11th, at 12:30 pm. The main location of this event will be in seminar room 222 at IMS in Morehead City, NC. The seminar will be streamed live to conference room 3204 on the 3rd floor of Murray Hall on UNC-CH campus in Chapel Hill, NC and online via Zoom (Meeting ID: 252-726-6841).

Seminar Title: Exploring fish habitat use on the New River Oyster Highway

Abstract: With over 85% of global oyster reefs gone, construction of new reefs in historically extirpated regions has become a popular restoration tool. We studied the fish communities and habitat use of six new subtidal, artificial oyster reefs from March to November in a temperate coastal estuary using a combination of net and traps (deployed during the evening crepuscular period), and a Dual Frequency Identification Sonar (DiDSON). These reefs utilize innovative substrates and configurations to provide new opportunities for fish habitat, with the results of this restoration effort potentially influencing future projects substantially. Our data suggest that restoring subtidal reefs in ecosystems where oysters are currently absent can, at least initially, aggregate piscivorous fishes (including recreationally important species) while enhancing habitat complexity for juveniles and forage species. Benthic and demersal nekton preferred the reefs over unconsolidated sediment habitat. Further community analysis will describe how fish communities may change with the creation of novel habitat. Additionally, a comparison of abundances and size structures between data collected with gear vs. DiDSON provides insight into the opportunities and limitations of acoustic sampling methods in complex estuarine habitats.