Comparison of Cuban coral and reef fish assemblages recorded by visual census and underwater stereo-video technique

Comparison of fish assemblages recorded by visual census and video census

“…Given these results, it can be specified that the DOV technique provides comparable estimates of richness and abundance with respect to the traditional census, coinciding with that reported by Bortone et al (1991) as well as Wartenberg & Booth (2015), revealing that the DOV can be considered as a complementary technique and/or equivalent to the traditional census (Davis et al, 2014;Wartenberg & Booth, 2015). Similar conclusions have been obtained using the S-DOV technique (Grane-Feliu et al, 2019;de la Guardia et al, 2021;Wilson et al, 2018).…”

“…According to the results, it is specified that the similarity of species between both techniques in each locality was high (more than 70 %), as well as that related to orders, families, genera, and dominant species. Regarding the comparison of the composition and structure, number of species, abundance and diversity of the fish community and dominant species between both methods, no significant differences were found in each locality, which is different to studies that have used a technique similar to the one presented here (DOV) (Pelletier et al, 2011;Tessier et al, 2005;Tessier et al, 2013), but it is similar to that reported by Bortone et al (1991) as well as Wartenberg & Booth (2015) who used the same technique, as well as other works that used the S-DOV (Grane-Feliu et al, 2019;de la Guardia et al, 2021).…”

“…The disadvantages of video methods have been stipulated to be the cost associated with purchasing the equipment as well as the additional time it takes to process and analyze the recording (Goetze et al, 2019;de la Guardia et al, 2021;Tessier et al, 2013). Regarding the cost of the equipment used for this study, it is specified that it was low (<$100 dollars), highlighting the role of action cameras, which offer a perfect balance among price, image quality, and operability (Letessier et al, 2015;Zarco-Perello & Enríquez, 2019), thus granting viability and accessibility (Goetze et al, 2015;Letessier et al, 2015).…”

“…Operationally, among its disadvantages are the cost of the equipment, complications for its execution (Holmes et al, 2013;Widmer et al, 2019), the precision with respect to the human eye (Bortone et al, 2000;Holmes et al, 2013;Tessier et al, 2005), as well as the limitation to identify small and cryptic species (Goetze et al, 2019;Grane-Feliu et al, 2019;Wilson et al, 2018). Other aspects that have been mentioned are that it can be more expensive and slower than the traditional census since it involves video processing for analysis (Grane-Feliu et al, 2019;de la Guardia et al, 2021;Holmes et al, 2013).…”

“…Within the DOV, two variations are recognized, the first is the use of a single camera where the technique consists of the video operator swimming alongside the diver who performs the census (Bortone et al, 1991;Pelletier et al, 2011;Tessier et al, 2005), and the second consists of a system where two cameras are mounted on a base (stereo video) (S-DOV) and in the same way the video operator swims next to the diver who performs the census (Goetze et al, 2015;Harvey et al, 2001;Harvey et al, 2004;Langlois et al, 2010). Taking them into account, studies that have compared the traditional census with the S-DOV are frequent (Grane-Feliu et al, 2019;de la Guardia et al, 2021;Wilson et al, 2018), this is not the case for studies that compare the DOV with the traditional one (Bortone et al, 1991;Tessier et al, 2005;Tessier et al, 2013;Wartenberg & Booth, 2015). These studies coincide that through both methods they can provide comparable estimates, however, it is emphasized that a greater number of species and individuals are recorded through the traditional census.…”