38. 



that are attached to the numerous glacial erratics commonly 

 found in this area. Other important fauna in this region 

 were shrimp (1) and the alcyonacean Eunephthya florida (10) . 

 The fauna of the west flank is dominated by Geryon 

 quinquedena (5) in the shallow region, with sponges (2) , 

 shrimp (1) and the deep-sea eel Synaphohranohus kaupi (6) 

 occurring slightly deeper. The fact that various localities 

 are frequently occupied by more than one end-member also 

 attests to the environmental heterogeneity found within this 

 canyon. These findings are in agreement v;ith the results of 

 the historical survey which identified Oceanographer Canyon 

 as having a highly variable faunal assemblage. 



To compare the fauna of the three canyons a rotated 

 principal components analysis was run for the entire data 

 set. This resulted in a data matrix of 153 samples and 59 

 species. Eighty-five percent of the sample variance was 

 explained by the first ten end-members, or eleven species 

 (Table II) . Nine of these end-members are monospecific, 

 meaning that dominant species are independently distributed. 

 This result again substantiates the findings of the historical 

 survey. Of a total of 153 samples, 141 of them were explained 

 by one or more of these end-members. 



In Table III the end-members are listed against depth in 

 the three canyons. The faunal differences between Baltimore 

 Canyon and the northern canyons are quite apparent. The 



