Coral Reefs And Fish Population Study in Point Cooke marine sanctuary

Coral reefs and fish population study in Point Cooke marine sanctuary1
CORAL REEFS AND FISH POPULATION STUDY IN POINT COOKE MARINE
SANCTUARY
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Coral reefs and fish population study in Point Cooke marine sanctuary 2
Introduction
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) offer area-centered management of aquatic ecosystem by
several types and scopes of protective measures. Habitats like the coral reefs are particularly
vulnerable to degradation from the climate changes. Marine ecosystems are being modified by
direct impacts of climate change such as ocean acidification, ocean warming, varying
circulation patterns, increasing sea level, rising severity of storms, and varying freshwater
influxes. As effects of climate variation strengthen, they may exacerbate impacts of present
stressors and thus, need modified or novel management techniques (Grorud-Colvert 2014).
Marine lives are under threat due to an increasing pressure from coastal growth, rising rate of
large-scale natural turbulences linked with weather variation and resources exploitation
(Jenkins 2013). MPAs are hugely utilized, spatially explicit conservation techniques to avert
the above threats, improve the resilience of aquatic ecosystems to disturbances, and also to
safeguard biodiversity and improve fisheries and the incomes of those relying on the maritime
resources (Cinner et al. 2013).
Point Cooke Marine Sanctuary is situated in the northeast junction of the Port Philip Bay, few
kilometers from Melbourne. The protect safeguards 290 hectares of shoreline which makes it the
hugest park in the victoria’s scheme of aquatic sanctuaries and national parks. The park is
broadly protected from the hype of the suburbs by the coastal dunes and close wetlands of the
Point Cook Coastal Park and Cheetham wetlands (Edmunds and Flynn 2018). A link of narrow
sandy beaches, mud flats and rocky beefs, the area hosts a wide diversity of a coastal and marine
life. Therefore, the Point Cooke marine sanctuary case study offers an instance of techniques of
assessing the effects of a conservation interference that permits people to link the scale

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discrepancies between the decisions and proofs. It drive in the prospects for quasi-experimental
effects assessment into the daily execution of conservation interferences, and provides a
framework for mainstreaming effect assessment across the protection industry (Komyakova,
Munday and Jones 2013).
As several concerns to impacts assessment is not distinct to the conservation industry or aquatic
systems, unique reflections comprise: monitoring environmental results in marine surroundings;
choosing suitable and precise indicators: choice of right research designs; and regulating for
perplexing elements (Grorud-Colvert 2014).
Authenticating the trends and status of several environmental aspects is challenging due to the
marine and terrestrial ecosystems heterogeneity. Great statistical and replication strength are
regularly needed to properly acquire the spatial heterogeneity of bionetworks, with long-period
sequence needed to unravel directional or cyclical variations from those modifications credited to
conservation interferences. Typically, monitoring MPA ecological effects, for instance, needs in
situ data collection under water, for example fish biomass, with implementation ranging the time
prior to and after MPA initiation and encompassing sites outsides of MPAs (Jenkins 2013). The
sustained and substantial backing needed are important for maintaining management at the
suitable spatial and temporal scales which denotes that severe effects assessment remains limited
in the maritime ecologies (Grorud-Colvert 2014).
Checking marine environmental structure may comprise data gathering on an array of indicators
from biological such as biomass and density of fish population to physical such as habitat
complexity and sedimentation. Indicators scale, selection, data gathering techniques and
analytical methods can significantly influence trends noted, causing too much differentiated

Coral reefs and fish population study in Point Cooke marine sanctuary 4
evaluation of MPA impact. Subsequently, many routines require to be sensibly reflected when
choosing suitable indicators of MPA environmental effect, comprising sensitivity to modification
and controlling significance.
Considerable writings exist regarding plan of monitoring exertions to documents the effects of
MPAs and same strategy interventions, drawing on both the ecological and econometric concept.
Scientist and experts on both field focus on the necessity for suitable control to back causal
inference. Advances in the control identification developed by econometricians can be embraced
to supplement research designs advanced to justify temporal stochasticity in environmental
schemes (Johnson et al. 2013).
The MPA establishment is non-random, creating orderly partialities among the features of
protected and non-protected area. The distinct aspects of the above biases are dependent on the
routine of MPA creation itself, the process utilized to pinpoint MPA position and borders,
decision-making involved, objectives and governance. MPAs are regularly planned with the
focus of shielding the zones of great biodiversity.
Point Cooke marine sanctuary case study
Figure 1: Point Cooke marine sanctuary

Coral reefs and fish population study in Point Cooke marine sanctuary 5
Experimental design
Monitoring methods and design
The environmental monitoring programme will be initiated for the Point Cooke marine sanctuary
that will concentrate on offering insights on the trends and status of fish population and coral-
reef habitats with MPAs. The subsequent protocols and programme will be structured to give
salient info on the trends and status to managers at relevant temporal and spatial at a suitable
levels of statistical strengths over the long –term, and at a relatively low cost. Properly-designed
impacts assessment shares several of the above features, for instances proper statistical strength,
long period series. However, it enforces extra data gathering and controlling needs to assist
quasi-experimental causative interpretation (Kim and Steiner 2016).
Significant monitoring exertions will occur in six MPAs and in zones outsides the MPAs, to note
the baseline ecological states such as fish and benthic aspects of coral reefs. Normally, all the
locations will be monitored before the intervention. But, the baseline statistics will not be always
accessible, as the collection of the data will be adopted from already existent monitoring process
without an effect assessment lens. Primary baseline states of many MPAs will be examined
before or within the first year of the intervention. Additionally, even without realizing ideal
circumstances, we project that control locations inclusion will be greatly informative as an
operational starting point for a long-term observing programme. Monitoring will be performed
utilizing a SCUBA at depth of 9-11 meters depth following standard guideline. Both the MPA
and control sites, data will be gathered on ecological conditions, for instance, the currents and
wave exposure, and general reef features such as reef type and slope (Campbell and Stanley
2015).

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Environmental indicators will be chosen to deliberate management objectives and be crucial as
fish populace and ecosystem health in Point Cooke marine sanctuary. Indicators will be lined up
with the Australia MPA Management Assessments, comprising the coral reef condition and main
key fisheries and non-target fish species populace. Other routine will comprise features of the
ecological indicators criteria which will include characteristics of the ecological indicators. Thus,
taking the above data into reflection, the subsequent indicators will be chosen for attachment in
the study: herbivorous fish species biomass, complete key fisheries species biomass, and habitat
quality.
Matching methods
MPAs in the Point Cooke marine sanctuary will be tactically be structured and non-randomly
positioned. To circumvent observable choice biases, a quasi-experimental scheme will be used,
and then a tiered matching methods ( entails coarse then statistical matching ) to pinpoint
comparable control areas, which permits the study to project the counterfactual, that is
variations in fish biomass that would have happened if no MPA were initiated (Toms and Villard
2015). Statistical matching will be utilized in effect to “reverse design” a randomized organized
experiment by minimizing observable preconceptions (Kim and Steiner 2016).
The contextual elements utilized in the statistical matching framework will be chosen centered
on published research in coral-reef ecosystem, suitable accessible info and recommendations
from scientists who ranked variables pertinent to Point Cooke marine sanctuary reef ecosystems.
The study will select ten contextual variables that will comprise biophysical, structural and
shared elements of coral-reef locations that affect the design of the ecosystem. Thus, the
structural variables will comprise reef type, exposure and slope, and also the lengths to deep

Coral reefs and fish population study in Point Cooke marine sanctuary 7
water. Social variables linked to fishing and resources application will include the pollution peril,
distance to primary market and distance to the nearing fishing settlement. Finally, the
biophysical variables will comprise exposure to the southwest and northwest winds, and rate of
sea surface temperature variances (Cinner et al. 2013).
Quasi-trial causal conclusion depends on the postulation that, after statistical matching routines,
methodological variances between untreated and treated units (observable bias) are insignificant.
Statistical matching eradicates visible biases (Davison and McCarthy 2016). Normally, experts
uses the “rule of the thumb” to evaluate to what extent treatment-control pairs match, particularly
if covariate balance was realized. For instance, the standardized mean variance of less that 5
percent are normally reflected satisfactory for strong causal inference (Davison and McCarthy
2016). For instance, standardized mean variances of less than 5 percent are usually reflected
satisfactory for strong causal conclusion. This inception, nevertheless, may differ in the maritime
surroundings for certain covariates. For instance, at places comparatively near to fish
marketplace and biomass and distance to market are firmly connected while, at reasonably far
distances, the correlation between biomass and distance to marketplace reduces. The relationship
nonlinearity among the outcomes and noted covariates, and the occurrence of subjective datasets,
shows that the threshold of standardized mean variances of less than 5 percent may not be
normally significant or realizable when used to marine surroundings (Caldwell, Zgliczynski,
Williams and Sandin 2016). The above would cause MPA managers having to accept greater
levels of differences between the control and treatment groups, and the above differences would
require to be taken into consideration for forthcoming analytical simulations that gauges MPA
effects.

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Conclusion
Human pollution has ruined marine ecosystems through the destructive fishing action,
overexploitation, climate variation, and contamination. Contamination and overfishing have long
past and apparently lower the resilience of aquatic ecosystems to further effects from the climate
change. Complete commendation has been pinpointed for advancing the ocean regulations
regarding the above concerns and for circumventing the climate change effects. Additionally,
there is pressing necessity to offer resource leaders with designs that can assist upheld the
function and assembly of aquatic ecosystems in the light of climate variation impacts. One of the
key areas for future research is comparative cost-benefits assessment between traditional and
current sanctuary management approach. The above benefits could comprise recreation,
biodiversity preservation, tourism, non-consumptive values, and recreation.

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