BRUVS for deepwater fish research

Deepwater habitats (>100 m) support diverse marine life but remain poorly understood, particularly for important fishery species such as banded rockcod (Hyporthodus ergastularius). To address this knowledge gap, AIMS in a collaborative opportunity with the Department of Primary Industries (QLD DPI) used newly developed stereo-BRUVS systems capable of operating to 500 m depth to survey banded rockcod aggregation sites to 280 m. The study provided the first habitat and fish community reference data from these deepwater environments, documenting diverse fish assemblages associated with soft sediments and gorgonian habitats, and confirming the presence of species of conservation and fisheries interest, including banded rockcod and sharks. An innovative approach incorporating fish morphometric measurements, while more time-intensive, demostrated important biological insights where traditional approaches are limited to improve confidence in abundance and size-related information.

Data was collected during a 2-day collaborative field trip (March 2026) in waters 25 nm offshore from SE Queensland. Two stereo-BRUVS rigs were deployed (5 deployments), each of approx. 2-3 hours duration, as a pilot study. Data includes species/lowest taxonomic group, relative abundance (as MaxN = the maximum number visible at one time in the video), lengths of key species (repeated and a variety of morphometic measurements), and associated habitat recorded from the field of view. Project findings were provided to QLD DPI for addition in their Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) project 2022-152 Assessing the biology and connectivity of deepwater finfish on Australia’s east coast and the impact of fleet dynamics final report.