440 
Fishery Bulletin 106(4) 
68 °W 67°W 
i ■ i ' i i ■ i i 
67°W 67°W 
I i i i I i i i I I - > - -t -i - - l - i i i. J 
Key: 
Wi Sandy Transects © Undisturbed Transects • Disturbed Transects 
Figure 1 
(A) Map of the Northeast Peak of Georges Bank displaying closed area II and the study 
sites surveyed between 1994 and 2000. (B) and (C) Maps of the starting points of each 
photographic transect conducted at shallow (B) and deep (C) sites. Transects were clas- 
sified as sandy if more than 50% of the photographs analyzed contained >50% cover of 
sand. Numbers on each map identify study sites. The classification of disturbance at 
some sites (i.e., 17 and 18) changed throughout the duration of this study. The lines in 
the background of each map show the bathymetry of Georges Bank; each line represents 
a 20-m change in depth. 
deeper depth strata should be recategorized. According 
to our revised classification scheme, any photographed 
transect at a deep site that was fished with a scallop 
dredge for one day or less per year was classified as 
undisturbed. 
Based on disturbance classification, sediment compo- 
sition, and depth, five 5 kmx 10 km sites were selected 
for examination during the first year of this study (Fig. 
1). Three of these study sites (i.e., sites 10, 13, and 
20) were located in deeper water on the Canadian sec- 
tion of Georges Bank. At the 80-90 m depth stratum, 
site 20 was classified as undisturbed, site 13 was clas- 
sified as disturbed for all years except 1998 when it 
contained two undisturbed transects, and site 10 was 
sampled only in 1994 when it contained one disturbed 
and one undisturbed transect (Table 1). On the shal- 
lower U.S. portion of the bank, two study sites were 
originally surveyed, one corresponding to an area with 
little disturbance from bottom fishing (i.e., site 18) and 
the other representing a heavily fished zone (i.e., site 
17). After the incorporation of site 17 into CA-II, much 
of the fishing effort formerly concentrated at this site 
was displaced into areas that were unaffected by the 
closure, including site 18. Consequently, the initial clas- 
