Ichthyofauna on three seamounts off southern and central California, USA

Marine Ecology Progress Series

Craig R. McClain¹  Gregor M. Cailliet¹  James P. Barry¹  Lonny Lundsten¹  Andrew P. DeVogelaere¹  David A. Clague¹ 

关键词: Seamount fishes;    Seamount biology;    California seamounts;    Deep sea fishes;    Seamount ecology;    Deep sea ecology;   

DOI  :  10.3354/meps08181

学科分类：海洋学与技术

来源: Inter-Research

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACT: In many regions of the world, commercial fisheries for seamount-aggregating species have collapsed. Most are trawl fisheries, which have been implicated in the destruction and loss of fragile coral and sponge habitat and potentially endemic seamount species. Even with the intense fishing effort over seamounts, our understanding of processes regulating the distribution and abundance of seamount fish assemblages, which is vital to conservation policy, is weak. Here, we describe the abundance and distribution of demersal fishes found on 3 seamounts off central and southern California. Video observations were taken during 27 dives of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), and were annotated in detail using the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s (MBARI) Video Annotation Reference System (VARS). Video analysis yielded 2151 observations of 36 identified taxa. No aggregations of fishes were observed during the surveys. Video transects were analyzed to quantify organism density. Similarity among seamounts was compared using Bray-Curtis similarity estimates. Our results indicate high similarity among seamount faunas at similar depths, a shift from provincial to abyssal/cosmopolitan species with increased depth, and no evidence of seamount endemism.

【 授权许可】

Unknown