158' 



158 



157°40' 



2r40'- 



2r20'- 



N 



'•// 



NAUTICAL MILES 



"a 



0.5 1 



Kailua 



Figure 1. — Locations of the three established east Oahu stations. 



taken. The west Oahu site yielded seven more P. 

 filamentosus for analysis. These results suggest 

 a possible minimum depth of about 61 m for 

 juvenile P. filamentosus at the sampled sites. 



The scuba observations indicated that the 

 habitat was generally similar at all three sta- 

 tions, but the substrate within each station 

 varied with depth. At the shallow end, the bot- 

 tom was hard, flat, and devoid of vertical relief. 

 A thin veneer of sand was present, with stands 

 of live Halimeda algae evenly distributed over 

 the bottom. Infrequent, shallow depressions in 

 the bottom provided the only substantial relief in 

 which newly settled reef fish (e.g., Pomacen- 

 tridae and Labridae) were aggregated. No juve- 



nile lutjanids were sighted at this shallow habi- 

 tat at any of the three stations, although during 

 observation of the habitat at station 2, two 

 Aprion virescens were hooked. 



The bottom habitats observed at the deep 

 ends of stations 1 and 3, where nearly all the 

 Pristipomoides filamentosus were caught, were 

 also similar. The bottom was flat and almost 

 completely devoid of any relief other than minor 

 features produced by sparse benthic biota. The 

 substrate consisted entirely of soft, deep sedi- 

 ment heavily penetrated by burrowing inverte- 

 brates. Although no fish were seen during these 

 deep dives, their presence was established at 

 station 1 by the capture of a single P. fila)nen- 



1002 



