202 



NOAA Technical Report NMFS 140 



NEW \ NEW ,- X \ ^\ 



JERSEY '.YORK/ N \ NEW / 



\ \ HAMPSHIRE .' 



GRAMS 

 PER SQUARE METER 



OPHIUROIDEA 



Figure 220 



Geographic distribution of Ophiuroidea: A — number of specimens per square meter of 

 bottom; B — biomass in grams per square meter of bottom. 



Occurrence of ophiuroids was low (9 to 10 c ? ) in 

 samples from the inner continental shelf, at depths less 

 than 50 m (Table 15). At depths of 50 to 500 m, where 

 ophiuroids were most abundant, their occurrence in 

 the samples was substantially higher, 40 to 72%. In 

 water deeper than 500 m, ophiuroids were present in a 

 slightly higher proportion of samples (44 to 76%). This 



indicates that these organisms were more uniformly 

 distributed at a lower density in deepwater regions than 

 they were in shallow water. 



Relation to Sediments 



Ophiuroids were rather plentiful in all types of bottom 



sediments, but trends in density and biomass in the 



