but with few exceptions, primarily small scale studies, the 

 benthic communities have received little attention (e.g., Dexter 

 1944; Stickney 1959; Hanks 1964; Sears and Cooper 1978; Larsen 

 1979; Larsen et al. 1983a, b; Hulbert et al . 1982; Witman and 

 Cooper 1983). Published 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 deep basins in the Gulf, Wilkinson and Murray, by 

 Rowe et al. (1975). Several, as yet unpublished, databases also 

 exist describing the Gulf's benthic communities. One of these is 

 a detailed expansion of the work outlined by Emery et al. (1965) 

 (Theroux and Wigley, pers. comm. ) while the other is from recent 

 box core sampling in the Gulf (Watling, pers. comm.). 



The current study was initiated as a submersible based 

 survey of offshore lobster habitat in the Gulf of Maine. In 

 addition to this fisheries orientation, however, numerous 35 mm 

 color photographs were taken to characterize the associated 

 macrobenthic fauna. In light of the paucity of information on 

 the Gulf's macrobenthic communities, it is the purpose of this 

 paper to summarize the photographic data collected from the years 

 1983 through 1985 using the Johnson Sea Link submersible systems. 



METHODS 



During the summer of 1983 through 1985 the Johnson Sea Link 

 manned submersible systems were utilized to survey the macroben- 

 thic fauna at 29 stations in the Gulf of Maine. The purpose of 

 the study was to document offshore lobster habitat, therefore, 

 dive site selection (Figure 1) was based on information on the 

 commercial trap fishery as well as National Marine Fisheries 

 Service data on lobster catches in their biannual groundfish 

 trawl surveys. Submersible dives at each station followed a 

 standard procedure, with the scientist recording observations on 

 a cassette tape or video camera as well as collecting surficial 

 sediment samples over the course of a transect. In addition to 

 these data, 35 mm color photographs were automatically taken at 

 10 to 15 second intervals throughout the dive. In the laboratory 

 a minimum of 200 randomly chosen photographs from each dive, or 

 all photos taken during the entire dive if less than 200 frames 

 total, were individually examined and the macrobenthic animals 

 identified and enumerated. Forty seven categories of 

 macrobenthos representing a variety of taxonomic levels were 

 identified including twenty seven invertebrate groups and 

 eighteen species of fish. 



RESULTS 



Sampling sites are shown in Figure 1. The stations were 

 visited during the summer months over a three year period, 1983 

 through 1985. In 1983, locations in the outer, Georges Basin, 

 and northward towards Truxton Swell were sampled while in 1984 

 the stations in the middle of the Gulf and Jordan Basin were 



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