exposed hard substrate shrimp, sponges and corals frequently 

 dominate. The depth ranges of the deeper water fauna are 

 usually quite broad. The higher concentrations of sessile 

 filter-feeders in the northern canyons attest to the greater 

 variety and extent of hard substrates found within them. 



Community analysis did not identify any cohesive faunal 

 assemblages. Rather the results indicate that the dominant 

 taxa found in canyon habitats are independently distributed, 

 with overlapping ranges in some areas and not in others. 

 The most obvious factor controlling the occurrence of many 

 of the species was availability of suitable substrate. The 

 other factors controlling their distribution are not known. 

 Most areas within the canyons were dominated by one species 

 rather than a group of them. This again attests to the 

 patchiness of the faunal distributions. 



Corals, both alcyonarians and scleractinians were seen 

 in all three canyons. The coral population of Baltimore 

 Canyon tends to be less dense and diverse than it is in the 

 other two canyons. The dominant coral in Baltimore Canyon 

 is a small white sea pen that occurs on soft sediment between 

 100 to 300 meters depth. Both Lydonia and Oceanographer 

 Canyons have high concentrations of a variety of corals. The 

 three dominant species in these canyons, Eunephthya flovida 

 in Lydonia Canyon, and Paramuricea grandis and Acanthogorgia 

 armata in Oceanographer Canyon, are all restricted to hard 



