Records of shallow-water marine invertebrates from French Frigate Shoals, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands with a note on nonindigenous species from NOW-RAMP 2000 surveys at 39 sites and a March 2002 survey at a single site (NCEI Accession 0001083)

In September of 2000, the Northwest Hawaiian Islands Rapid Assessment and Monitoring Program (NOW-RAMP) Expedition surveyed French Frigate Shoals (FFS) and a number of the remaining Northwest Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). At FFS, marine surveys were conducted at 39 stations by three different Rapid Ecological Assessment teams from two separate research vessels, NOAA Ship Townsend Cromwell (11 -25 Sep 2000) and the Rapture (23- 27 Sep 2000). An additional study of the seawall at Tern Island was conducted in March 2002. A total of 618 marine invertebrate taxa were collected and identified, about 75% to specific level. Of the 622 taxa identified, 502 are considered new records for FFS and perhaps 10 to 20% of these may be new records for the Hawaiian Archipelago. Of these new records, as many as 50 species may be undescribed and so far known only from FFS. Most of material collected by NOW-RAMP from the NWHI remains to be examined, and therefore no conclusions can be drawn yet regarding the distribution of these species throughout the island chain. Two species considered to be nonindigenous, the hydroid Pennariadisticha, and the barnacle Ba/anus reticulatus, were found at FFS. A number of specimens of some taxonomic groups collected from FFS remain to be examined thoroughly by specialists, most notably the polychaetes, which will certainly increase the final species tally. Further study will also be required of the 150 taxa which could not be identified to species level at the time of this report.