Snapper and King George Whiting occurrence records for species distribution modelling for Range Extending Species Project

Brief description

Snapper and King George whiting occurrence records were aggregated from the Reef Life Survey dataset, IMAS Archives, the Tassie Fish Frame Collection Program, Atlas of Living Australia and Redmap, in addition to pseudoabsences generated through space and time within the study extent, and matched to environmental covariates (sourced from Copernicus Marine) used for species distribution modelling for FRDC project 2018-070

Lineage

Maintenance and Update Frequency: none-planned

Statement: Species distribution models require large volumes of occurrence records, and as such we aggregated occurrence records from open access data sources, along with targetted initiatives run in-house at IMAS which include: Occurrence Records from the Range Edge Three unique sources of range edge species occurrence data were captured in this study and utilised in the development of species distributions models. These include: Data from the range edge (1, 2 and 3) 1. Tassie Fish Frame Collection Program The Tassie Fish Frame Collection (TFFC) Program was launched by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at the University of Tasmania in December 2019 with the aim of creating a recognisable and ongoing fish frame (i.e. a fish with the fillets removed) collection program for Tasmania. The program has provided a platform to engage with the Tasmanian recreational fishing community, and an opportunity for fishers to participate in citizen science through the donation of important biological samples and data, from fish waste which would otherwise be discarded (i.e. fish frames). To enable the Tassie Fish Frame Collection Program to operate on a state-wide scale, a network of 16 drop-off points was established to provide strategic spatial coverage along most of coastal Tasmania. These drop-off points were predominately tackle stores, which provide a natural point for knowledge sharing and communication around fishing for the target species. IMAS staff members regularly liaised with the drop-off points to organise pick-up and transport of frozen fish frames to IMAS laboratories in Launceston and Hobart for processing. Prior to the official launch of the TFFC program, fish frames were occasionally donated by the recreational angling community to IMAS for research purposes, and as such an additional 669 King George whiting fish frames were included within this data set donated between 2016–2019 (until July). It was this initial success of engaging with the recreational fishing community which formed the basis to launch the official TTFC Program for targeted species around the state. 2. Range Extension Data Base and Mapping Project (Redmap) Redmap (www.redmap.org.au, Pecl et al. 2019b) is an Australian citizen science initiative which encourages members of the public to photograph and report new or unusual species along the coast. These photographs are then identified or verified by a network of expert scientists, ensuring the quality of the reports. 3. Fishery-independent sampling To account for spatial and temporal biases from citizen science sources in Tasmania, we also used occurrence records from fishery-independent sampling during the period of which the TFFC Program was launched (i.e. 2019–2021; Table S1). Sampling consisted of fishery independent research trips mainly targeting undersized fish (rod and line and seine nets). Additional sources of occurrence data (4 and 5) To ensure the core distributions of both study species were appropriately represented and species distribution models fitted to data from both core and range edge environments, data were also sourced from: 4. Atlas of Living Australia Atlas of Living Australia (ALA, www.ala.org.au) is a comprehensive collection of occurrence records and biodiversity data, aggregated from natural history collections, government departments, researchers and university institutions, community groups and individuals Australia-wide. These data are numerous and free to use. 5. Reef Life Survey Reef Life Survey (RLS, reeflifesurvey.com, Edgar et al. 2020) is a non-profit citizen science program which use highly trained volunteer SCUBA divers to conduct standardized underwater visual surveys of rocky- and coral reefs worldwide and provide open-source occurrence and biodiversity data.

Notes

Credit
This dataset was from a larger project supported by the Fisheries Research and Development Council (2018-070), describing the biology, ecology, and impact of three range-extending fish species in Tasmania: yellowtail kingfish, snapper and King George whiting.