Ault et al.: A multispecies assessment of coral reef fish stocks 
397 
Figure 1 
Map of the Florida Keys coastal marine ecosystem showing the coral reef tract (light gray) running offshore from Key Biscayne 
southwest to the Dry Tortugas, and the spatial relationships of Florida Bay, Key West, and the Miami urban center. Numbered 
darkened circles show the 89 reefs where 4,571 visual survey samples of the reef fish community were taken from 1979 to 1996. 
Open circles around numbers indicate sanctuary preservation areas (SPAs). 
Table 1 
Visual survey sampling effort (number of point samples) by habitat areas and depth intervals conducted from 1979 to 1996 in the 
Florida Keys reef tract. The offshore zone is exposed to the Florida Current. 
Reef zone habitat type 
Artificial 
Coral 
Hard 
Sand 
Depth 
reef 
reef 
bottom 
bottom 
Totals 
Feet 
Meters 
Inshore 
Inshore Offshore 
Inshore Offshore 
Inshore 
Total Percent 
0-10 
0-3.05 
0 
848 
171 
26 
8 
13 
1,066 
23.32 
10-20 
3.05-6.10 
5 
726 
816 
14 
207 
38 
1,806 
39.51 
20-30 
6.10-9.14 
85 
403 
561 
4 
146 
0 
1,199 
26.23 
30-40 
9.14-12.19 
28 
31 
92 
0 
40 
0 
191 
4.18 
40-50 
12.19-15.24 
9 
9 
81 
0 
48 
0 
147 
3.22 
50-60 
15.24-18.29 
0 
15 
65 
0 
47 
0 
127 
2.78 
60-70 
18.29-21.34 
0 
1 
34 
0 
0 
0 
35 
0.77 
Total 
127 
2,033 
1,820 
44 
496 
51 
4,571 
Percent 
2.78 
44.48 
39.82 
0.96 
10.85 
1.12 
100.00 
Shortis, 1996). To improve accuracy, divers continu- 
ously calibrated their length estimates with a 30-cm 
ruler attached perpendicular to the far end of a 
meterstick. Divers without calibration sticks have 
been shown to obtain a mean accuracy of 86% for 
length estimates (St. John et al., 1990). 
