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Title
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Distribution of Hard-Bottom Habitats on the Continental Shelf off the Northern and Central East Coast of Florida.
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Creator
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Perkins, T. H., Norris, H. A., Wilder, D. T., Kaiser, S. D., Camp, D. K., Matheson, Jr., R. E., Sargent, F. J., Colby, M. M., Lyons, W. G., Gilmore, Jr., R. G., Reed, J. K., Zarillo, G. A., Connell, K., Fillingfin, M., Idris, F. M.
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Abstract/Description
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Marine fisheries scientists, user groups, and resource managers in the southeastern Atlantic states have determined that there is need for accurate information on the location and extent of hard-bottom habitat, which is of importance to the maintenance of reef-fish stocks. Reef fish have declined to such low levels that reproductive stocks are often inadequate to maintain current populations, and some fisheries stocks may be approaching a state of collapse. In order to meet this need for...
Show moreMarine fisheries scientists, user groups, and resource managers in the southeastern Atlantic states have determined that there is need for accurate information on the location and extent of hard-bottom habitat, which is of importance to the maintenance of reef-fish stocks. Reef fish have declined to such low levels that reproductive stocks are often inadequate to maintain current populations, and some fisheries stocks may be approaching a state of collapse. In order to meet this need for information, a Bottom Mapping Work Group was formed in 1985 by the SEAMAP management committee. The work group developed a plan for establishing a bottom-mapping database using historical information obtained from surveys of the study area, and a study was subsequently initiated to describe and characterize hard-bottom resources in the South Atlantic Bight. . The initial segment of the study was conducted by scientists in South Carolina and Georgia (Van Dolah et al., 1994), and the study was continued by scientists in North Carolina (Moser et al., 1995). A total of 23,960 records with information on location and type of bottom were compiled during the first two segments of the study. The SEAMAP Bottom-Mapping Study was initiated by Florida in 1994. The Florida study group has 1) expanded the list of hard-bottom-obligate fishes to 264 taxa, 2) developed a protocol for using specimen-collection-based information to acquire evidence of bottom type, and 3) developed a protocol for incorporating areal data into the database so that the area-data records are equivalent to those of the point and line-segment records incorporated into the database during the first two segments of the study. The Florida group has incorporated an additional 20,787 records from 37 sources with determinations of bottom type into the database. Of these records, 900 are derived from 9 areal databases, primarily from surveys that used side-scan sonar, and an additional secondary data table (Appendix 4) that summarizes those records has been added to the database. Approximately 37% of the grid cells in the Florida study area contain some data on bottom type, and the database now totals 44,747 records.
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Date Issued
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1997
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FAUIR000470
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Format
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Document (PDF)
