1 Let me just quickly summarize what these habitat types are and 



2 tell you what we estimate their percentage area coverage in these canyon 



3 head environments. 



4 Habitat type 1 is a fairly flat, featureless, less than 5 percent 



5 cover by area overlay of rock and gravel. We estimate that the type 1 



6 environment covers about 60 percent of the canyon heads. 



7 Type 2, same description, but more than a 5 percent overlay of 



8 gravel and rock, occupies about 10 percent of the area. 



9 Type 3, a boulder field, highly productive fishery areas, you'll 



10 see that in the video tape. It occupies only about 5 percent of the 



11 canyon heads. 



12 Type 4 is our so-called "pueblo village" environment, that ranges 



13 greatly in intensity and you'll see this, I think, very clearly in the 



14 video tape. A very important environment for the canyons, probably the 



15 most important, occupies about 20 percent of the canyon heads. 



16 Type 5, the sand dune/sand wave canyon axis environment, less that 



17 5 percent. Type one, 60 percent, type 4, the pueblo village, 20 percent 



18 --I'm sorry. 



19 Type 3, the boulder field and type 4, the pueblo village 



20 environment, are occupying a total of 25 percent of canyon floor area. 



21 The heads are by far the most important commercial fishery nursery 



22 ground environments. 



23 These characteristics, the heterogeneity and the strong 



24 association of community structure, species, type, species abundance as 



25 a function of habitat type, strongly demand a very site-specific in-situ 



26 approach to any future benchmark or monitoring efforts of these 



27 megabenthic communities. 



28 Trying to do these kinds of studies in any kind of a monitoring 



29 mode from surface vessels is nothing short of a complete waste of time, 



30 in my opinion. 



31 Canyon heads represent important nursery grounds as regard the 



32 boulder field, type 3 and pueblo village, type 4 habitats. Commercial 



33 species taking advantage of these nursery grounds are the lobster, jonah 



12 



