45 
NOAA 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
Fishery Bulletin 
established 1881 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Fish species associated with shipwreck and 
natural hard-bottom habitats from the middle 
to outer continental shelf of the Middle Atlantic 
Bight near Norfolk Canyon 
Abstract— Fish species of the Middle 
Atlantic Bight (MAB) continental 
shelf are well known; however, spe- 
cies occupying hard-bottom habitats, 
particularly on the outer shelf, are 
poorly documented. Reef-like habi- 
tats are relatively uncommon on the 
MAB shelf; therefore, shipwrecks 
may represent a significant habi- 
tat resource. During fall 2012 and 
spring 2013, 9 sites (depths: 42-126 
m) near Norfolk Canyon were sur- 
veyed by using remotely operated 
vehicles. One site consisted of sand 
bottom, one consisted of predomi- 
nantly natural hard bottom, and 7 
sites included 8 large shipwrecks. Of 
38 fish taxa identified, 33 occurred 
on hard bottom and 25 occurred on 
soft substrata. Fourteen fish taxa 
occurred almost exclusively on hard 
bottom, and 6 species were observed 
only on soft bottom. The most abun- 
dant taxa, especially on reef habitat, 
were the chain dogfish (Scyliorhinus 
retifer), a scorpionfish (Scorpaena 
sp.), the yellowfin bass (Anthias 
nicholsi), the red barbier ( Baldwi - 
nella vivanus), the black sea bass 
( Centropristis striata ), unidentified 
anthiine serranids, and the deep- 
body boarfish ( Antigonia capros ). 
Depth, location, and season did not 
significantly influence fish assem- 
blages. Fish assemblages on natural 
and artificial hard-bottom habitat 
were similar but significantly differ- 
ent from soft-bottom assemblages. 
Deep-reef fishes of the southern 
MAB may be constrained by zooge- 
ography, depth, and inadequate habi- 
tat — limitations that could increase 
their vulnerability. 
Manuscript submitted 13 February 2015. 
Manuscript accepted 21 October 2015. 
Fish. Bull. 114:45-57 (2016). 
Online publication date: 10 November 2015. 
doi. 10.7755/FB.114.1.4 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Steve W. Ross 1 
Mike Rhode 1 
Stephen T. Viada 2 
Rod Mather 3 
Email address for contact author: rosss@uncw.edu 
1 Center for Marine Science 
University of North Carolina at Wilmington 
5600 Marvin Moss Lane 
Wilmington, North Carolina 28409 
2 CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. 
8502 SW Kansas Avenue 
Stuart, Florida 34997 
3 Applied History Lab 
Department of History 
University of Rhode Island 
80 Upper College Road 
Kingston, Rhode Island 02881 
The fish fauna of the shelf and up- 
per slope of the U.S. Middle Atlantic 
Bight (MAB) (from Cape Hatteras to 
Cape Cod) is considered cool temper- 
ate, although fish enter from colder 
and warmer regions to the north and 
south, respectively. The estuarine 
and shelf fishes are particularly well 
studied in this region (e.g., Grosslein 
and Azarovitz, 1982; Colvocoresses 
and Musick, 1984; Gabriel, 1992; 
Murdy et al., 1997; Able and Fahay, 
1998), in large part, because of de- 
cades of standardized, fishery-inde- 
pendent trawl surveys. Although fish 
communities have been documented 
on the open shelf and upper slope, 
their presence on untrawlable habi- 
tats (i.e. , canyon walls, rocky bottom, 
and shipwrecks) has not been well 
documented. 
The shelf of the Middle Atlantic 
Bight has a lower percentage of ex- 
posed natural hard substrata than 
that of other areas in U.S. Atlantic 
waters (Steimle and Zetlin, 2000; 
SEAMAP-SA, 2001). Therefore, habi- 
tat may be limiting for fauna in the 
MAB that require hard substrata, 
and therefore introduced shipwrecks 
or other reef-like habitats prob- 
ably represent significant habitat 
resources. Even so, there has been 
little assessment of the fishes associ- 
ated with either natural or artificial 
hard-bottom habitats in the MAB 
(Eklund, 1988; Adams, 1993; Steimle 
and Zetlin, 2000). Although direct 
observation techniques are preferred 
for assessment of the fauna of rug- 
ged hard substrata (e.g., Caillet et 
al., 1999; Quattrini and Ross, 2006; 
Ross and Quattrini, 2007), these 
methods have not been widely ap- 
plied on the MAB shelf. Three stud- 
ies that involved nearshore surveys 
in the MAB used direct observation 
to document fishes on various bot- 
tom types, including hard bottom, at 
depths <55 m (Auster et al., 1991; 
