Baseline assessment of fish communities of the Flower Garden Banks

Description

The work developed baseline information on fish and benthic communities within the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS). Surveys employed diving, technical diving, ROV, and hydroacoustics technologies for a comprehensive assessment of the fish and benthic habitat communities of the East and West Bank. The FGBNMS represents the northernmost tropical western Atlantic coral reef on the continental shelf and support the most highly developed offshore hard bank community in the region. The complexity of habitats supports a diverse assemblage of organisms including approximately 250 species of fish, 23 species of coral, and 80 species of algae in addition to large sponge communities. Understanding and monitoring these resources is critical to both sanctuary inventory and management activities. During the course of the sanctuary's management plan review process, the impact of fishing was identified as a priority issue, and the concept of a research only area was suggested. The purpose of this project was to provide baseline data for all benthic habitats and communities.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
0 Online Resource http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/ecosystems/sanctuaries/fgb_nms/
0 View the complete metadata record on InPort for more information about this dataset. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/39310
0 Online Resource http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/ecosystems/sanctuaries/fgb_nms/
0 The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords. https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/find-data/idn/gcmd-keywords
33 NOAA Data Management Plan for this record on InPort. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inportserve/waf/noaa/nos/nccos/dmp/pdf/39310.pdf

Tags

  • united states of america
  • reef monitoring and assessment
  • corals
  • east flower garden banks (27n093w0001)
  • national ocean service
  • national centers for coastal ocean science
  • biosphere
  • oceans
  • fgb
  • noaa
  • numeric data sets
  • biology
  • linear transect
  • fish
  • atlantic ocean
  • gulf of mexico
  • u.s. department of commerce
  • earth science
  • texas
  • coral reef fishes
  • reef fish census
  • doc/noaa/nos/nccos
  • marine biology
  • fish assemblages
  • flower garden banks
  • ocean basin
  • species richness
  • west flower garden banks (27n093w0002)
  • zoology
  • fish census
  • ecological dynamics
  • country/territory
  • belt transect

Topics

Categories