Geospatial and Acoustic Application in an Artificial Reef Site of South Korea

Abstract

Artificial reefs are important since they provide additional habitat leading to increasing abundance and biomass of marine biota. In a Bukchon artificial reef, Jeju Island, South Korea, environment data, artificial reef properties, and acoustic data in four seasons were integrated to visualize and examine their connections using a geographic information system (GIS). As a result, regarding the spatial and temporal distributions of fishes, January had the lowest Nautical Area Scattering Coefficient (NASC, m(2)/nm(2)) and June had the highest NASC, and relatively high NASC was observed from 5 to 30 m deep throughout seasons. The influential circle (effective distance from reef) had a trend to decrease in January, April, and October except for June. Based on interconnection between June fish schools, interpolated water temperature, and reef property, the fish schools preferred approximately 18.4 degrees C and concrete of reef material, and their average closest distance to reefs was 405.2 m. A dominant species in four seasons from biological samplings was benthopelagic. This study pointed that the GIS application with primarily acoustic data could be one of great tools for fish resources and reef management in complex reef environments.