BOFFFF Talk

Tom Calvanese at work.\Photo courtesy of ODFW.

While we were campaigning for the creation of Oregon’s set of five marine reserves, one of the key concepts we used to illustrate the value of such protected areas was the BOFFFF’s:  Big Old Fat Fecund Female Fish.  Among rockfish in particular, the biggest and oldest females are the most prolific producers of young.  Fishermen tend to take the largest fish, which has a disproportionate effect in depressing the overall population of fish species.  Protected marine reserve areas would allow fish to grow to maturity and produce larger generations of young, which would eventually spill out of the reserve and contribute to fisheries, eventually increasing sustainable harvest.  This was a new insight produced by recent research when we began promoting it a decade ago.

Marine biologist Tom Calvanese of the Redfish Rocks Community Team has continued this research ever since, focusing on the Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve near Port Orford.  He will give a talk on what he has learned about the BOFFFFs, entitled “Old Growth of the Sea,” at Redfish Rocks on Wednesday, April 18, 6 p.m. in the Port Orford Library (1421 Oregon St.).  The presentation, free and open to all, is sponsored by the Redfish Rocks Community Team.