A Photographic Survey of the Megafauna of the Central 

 and Eastern Gulf of Maine 



Richard W. Langton and Joseph R. Uzmann 



ABSTRACT: During the summers of 1983 

 through 1985 the JOHNSON-SEA-LINK manned 

 submersible systems were used to survey the mega- 

 fauna in the central and eastern Gulf of Maine. 

 Quantitative 35 mm color photographs were taken 

 at 29 stations, 5.714 photos were examined, and the 

 megafauna identified. Eighteen taxa represented 

 96% of all the organisms counted, and of these 18 

 only 5 groups, from 2 phyla, were numerically dom- 

 inant. Ophiuroidea and Asteroidea were the domi- 

 nant echinoderms while Ceriantharia, Pennatula, 

 and Bolocera were the dominant cnidarians. The 

 relationship between sediment type and the mega- 

 fauna was also investigated. Again, relatively few 

 taxa were important and these groups showed sub- 

 strate specificity. Pennatula occurred in a variety 

 of substrates but were most abundant in silt (1.20 

 individuals m"~). Ceriantharians were generally 

 found in sandy substrates at densities as high as 

 1.12 m"~, while Bolocera dominated on gravel 

 but at much lower densities (0.017 m "). Scal- 

 lops, Placopecten, were restricted to gravelly sand, 

 while pandalid shrimp occurred on the finer sands 

 and mud, both at low densities (s0.04 m^^). 

 Asteroidea covered almost the entire range of sub- 

 strates at low density, although they were more 

 numerous on sands (max. = 0.16 m~") and 

 gravels (max. = 0.17^). Ophiuroidea reached 

 their maximum density (1.23 m ~) on slightly 

 gravelly sand but also occurred at >1 m ~ on 

 gravelly mud. The only fish observed at >0.01 

 m " were Lumpenus lumpretaeformis and Mer- 

 luccius bilinearis, both of which were found on mud 

 substrates. 



The Gulf of Maine has been described as an 

 epicontinental sea or macroestuary extending 

 from Massachusetts to Nova Scotia (Uchupi 

 1965. 1966; Emery and Uchupi 1972; Campbell 

 1986). It has its origins in the last glacial period, 

 11,000 BP (Before Present), having been 

 shaped by both fluvial and glacial erosion 



Richard \V. I^ariKton, Maine Department of Marine Re- 

 sources, Marine Resources Laboratory, McKnown Point, 

 West Boothbay Harbor, ME 04.57.5. 



Joseph R. Uzmann, Northeast Fisheries Center, National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, Woods Hole, MA 02543. 



(Emery et al. 1965; Ziegler et al. 1965). The 

 resulting uneven topography and mixture of 

 sediments offer a variety of habitats for the 

 establishment of benthic organisms, of both 

 commercial and noncommercial value (Rich 

 1929; Emery et al. 1965). The distribution and 

 abundance of commercial species have been 

 studied over the years (Bigelow and Schroeder 

 1939, 1953) but with few exceptions, primarily 

 small-scale studies, the benthic communities 

 have received little attention (Dexter 1944; 

 Stickney 1959; Hanks 1964; Sears and Cooper 

 1978; Larsen 1979; Hulbert et al. 1982; Larsen 

 et al. 1983a, b; Witman and Cooper 1983). Pub- 

 lished reports describing the soft bottom 

 benthos in the offshore regions of the Gulf are 

 limited to the work of Emery et al. (1965), who 

 conducted a geological and biological survey of 

 the U.S. east coast continental shelf, and a 

 study of two contiguous deep basins (Wilkinson 

 and Murray) in the western Gulf by Rowe et al. 

 (1975). Several, as yet unpublished, databases 

 also exist describing the Gulfs benthic com- 

 munities. One of these is a detailed expansion of 

 the work outlined by Emery et al. (1965) 

 (Theroux and Wigley^), while the other is from 

 recent box core sampling and submersible ob- 

 servations in the Gulf (Watling et al. 1988). 



The current study was initiated as a submers- 

 ible survey of offshore lobster habitat in the 

 Gulf of Maine. In addition to this fisheries orien- 

 tation, however, numerous 35 mm color photo- 

 graphs were taken to characterize the associ- 

 ated megafauna. Because of the paucity of infor- 

 mation on the benthic communities of the Gulf, 

 it is the purpose of this paper to summarize the 

 photogi'aphic data collected from the years 1983 

 through 1985 using the JOHNSON-SEA-LINK 

 submersible systems. 



Manuscript accepted March 1989. 

 Fishery Bulletin, U.S. 87: 945-954. 



'Therou.x, R. B., and R. L. Wigley. Quantitative com- 

 position and distribution of the macrobenthic invertebrate 

 fauna of the New England region. Unpubl. manuscr. 

 Northeast Fisheries Center, Woods Hole Laboratory, 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, Woods Hole, 

 MA 02543. 



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