National Marine Sanctuaries

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National Marine Sanctuaries
Americas Underwater Treasures
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Habitat Characterization

• What are the species you are looking for?
• What are the habitats and what do they look like?
• How do you estimate
• abundance?

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Habitats
Rocky Reef Any area with rocky boulders,
granite, or pinnacles

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Habitats
Soft Bottom Any area that is lacking reef
material, and consists of soft, sandy, or muddy
substrate
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Species Identification

• Characteristics
• to look for
• Body Shape
• Color
• Behavior
• Habitat

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Invertebrates
Sea Cucumber (Parastichopus californicus)
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Invertebrates
Box Crab (Lopholithodes foraminatus)

• Slow moving
• Usually seen over soft bottom habitat

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Fish
Rockfish (Sebastes sp.)
spiky dorsal spines
Big eyes
Big lips
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Fish
Juvenile rockfish
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Fish
Ratfish (Hydrolagus colliei)

• wing-likefins
• watch for shadows
• on the bottom

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How to rate the abundance
Single 1 Few 2-10 Many 10-500 Abundant 500
and more.
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Abundance
Single 1
Many 10-100
Few 2-10
Abundant gt500
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Lasers 20 cm apart
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What is it?
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What is it?
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What is it?
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• Characterizing habitat
• Gain information about the ecosystem and its
  inhabitants
• Monitoring
• Tracking changes over time

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