Shallow Water Habitat Mapping and Reef Fish Stock Estimation Using High Resolution Satellite Data

Shallow marine waters comprise diverse benthic types forming habitats for reef fish community, which important for the livelihood of coastal and small island inhabitants. Satellite imagery provide synoptic map of benthic habitat and further utilized to estimate reef fish stock. The objective of this research was to estimate reef fish stock in complex coral reef of Pulau Pari, by utilizing high resolution satellite imagery of the WorldView-2 in combination with field data such as visual census of reef fish. Field survey was conducted between May-August 2013 with 160 sampling points representing four sites (north, south, west, and east). The image was analy-zed and grouped into five classes of benthic habitats i.e., live coral (LC), dead coral (DC), sand (Sa), seagrass (Sg), and mix (Mx) (combination seagrass+coral and seagrass+sand). The overall accuracy of benthic habitat map was 78%. Field survey revealed that the highest live coral cover (58%) was found at the north site with fish density 3.69 and 1.50 ind/m2at 3 and 10 m depth, respectively. Meanwhile, the lowest live coral cover (18%) was found at the south site with fish density 2.79 and 2.18 ind/m2 at 3 and 10 m depth, respectively. Interpolation on fish density data in each habitat class resulted in standing stock reef fish estimation: LC (5,340,698 ind), DC (56,254,356 ind), Sa (13,370,154 ind), Sg (1,776,195 ind) and Mx (14,557,680 ind)