Fisheries Biology and Stock Assessment Division (FBSAD) Recruit and Predator Reef Fish Belt Transect and Habitat Surveys at Big Island (Hawaii Island) in May-June 2009 (NCEI Accession 0073870)

Shore-based belt transects were conducted at 1 to ~ 5 m depths at a total two (2) sites: at 2 longshore sites on the leeward coast (South Kohala district) of the Big Island (Hawaii Island) in the MHI during spring-summer 2009.

For recruit reef fish survey, twenty (20) randomly positioned transects were surveyed at each site or site-group in 2009. Each transect was 50-m long x 2-m wide (100 m**2 area). Raw survey data consist of species-specific and size-specific (total length, TL, in cm) numerical counts of recruit (≤ 5 cm total length, TL) reef fishes encountered within transect boundaries.

For predator reef fish survey, twenty (20) randomly positioned transects were surveyed at each site or site-group in 2009. Each transect was 50-m long x 4-m wide (200 m**2 area). Raw survey data consist of species-specific and size-specific (total length, TL, in cm) numerical counts of large juvenile and adult (≥ 6 cm total length, TL) stages of PREDATOR reef fishes encountered within transect boundaries. Inclusion as a predator fish in the transect tally was based on either known or likely (based on functional morphology) inclusion of small fishes in the species' diet.

For recruit-habitat survey, the recruit-habitat relations (habitat use by recruits) were surveyed at 1 to ~5 m depths based on all 'Encounters' of singletons and 'groups' (where a group comprised > 1 recruit associating with one another and within 10-cm distance of one another), along transects conducted at a total two (2) sites on the leeward coast (South Kohala district) of the Big Island (Hawaii Island, in the MHI) during spring 2009. The substrate type closest to recruits encountered within transect swaths were recorded as one or more of fourteen (14) main taxonomic and functional habitat types.