Author Type

Faculty

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to document the occurrence and distribution of golden crab, blueline tilefish, golden tilefish, and royal red shrimp in deep-water habitats (200 m to ~900 m) off eastern and southern Florida, within the jurisdiction of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC). The scope of this study extends from the latitude of the north Florida border to the Dry Tortugas and out to the boundary of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone which is ~900 m deep within the Straits of Florida. Videotapes from manned submersible and ROV dives were selected to be representative of the geographical range north to south off Florida and the depth range from 200 m to 900 m. In addition, some sites had multiple dives which allowed for comparisons of potential diurnal cycles and seasonal cycles for some of the species. The videotapes of each of these dives were re-analyzed to document these species and associated habitats. In addition to the submersible dives which targeted coral and hard-bottom habitat, several deep-water benthic environmental surveys for proposed natural gas pipelines, port, and telecommunications cable were also re-analyzed. These provided east-west transects from depths of 200 m to the EEZ (~900 m), which included extensive soft-bottom habitat for comparison of species distributions with the hard-bottom sites. And finally, data were included from a 1987 ROV benthic survey of a deep-water EPA Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Site off Miami for the occurrence of tilefish and golden crab.

Publication Date

2010

Comments

Florida Atlantic University. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute contribution #1815.

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