The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is utilizing the help of “smurfs” to check on rockfish populations.
Not to be confused with the cartoon smurfs, it stands for “Standard Monitoring Unit for the Recruitment of Fishes.”
The bundle of fencing is used to attract baby rockfish. The smurfs are used to capture rockfish so that ODFW and others can gauge how well the species is repopulating.
“This is part of the research that our program does collaboratively with Oregon State University to try and understand which different species are settling in our nearshore habitats and also to look for changes over time,” said Lindsay Aylesworth, program leader, ODFW Marine Reserves Program.
The information is vital as rockfish are the backbone of Oregon’s sport and commercial bottom-fish fisheries.
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