While effects of organic enrichment on inshore, soft-sediment communities are well studied, little is known about how finfish farm-derived impacts will manifest in open ocean environments. This report identifies key species that may be affected by open ocean aquaculture and describes physiological indicators that may provide insight into organism health. This is the first of several project objectives that work toward developing environmental health measures for use in offshore environments.

The impact of video monitoring on estimating black petrel bycatch in bottom longline fisheries was assessed. Combining observer and video monitoring data resulted in lower estimated captures compared with using observer data alone. Simulations of different proportions of assessed video footage suggest currently overpredicted estimates of black petrel captures. Also, the analysis suggests that the presence of observers and/or cameras increased fishers’ compliance to report black petrel captures.