408 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
NOAA 
Abstract — A remote underwater 
video camera system was used to 
observe black sea bass ( Centropristis 
striata) on natural bottom habitats 
in waters off Maryland. Videos were 
collected from June to August 2011 
at 6 hard bottom sites by deploying 
a fish trap equipped with multiple 
cameras. Data obtained from vid- 
eos included fish counts and gen- 
eral fish behaviors observed around 
the camera system. We were able to 
distinguish between 2 categories of 
fish (i.e., with and without a nuchal 
forehead hump) and among three 
different habitat types appearing 
on videos. Counts of this species dif- 
fered among habitat types with the 
highest counts occurring on rocky 
and reef habitats. Common behav- 
iors exhibited by all fish included 
resting and aggregating on sand and 
around structures, whereas fish with 
nuchal humps exhibited antagonistic 
and territorial behaviors. On the ba- 
sis of our results, we conclude that 
underwater video has the potential 
to provide useful information about 
the abundance and behavior of black 
sea bass in waters off the coast of 
Maryland. 
Manuscript submitted 22 July 2016. 
Manuscript accepted 31 May 2017. 
Fish. Bull. 115:408-418 (2017). 
Online publication date: 22 June 2017. 
doi: 10.7755/FB.115.3.10 
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. 
Fishery Bulletin 
established in 1881 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U.S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Use of an underwater video system to record 
observations of black sea bass ( Centropristis 
striata ) in waters off the coast of Maryland 
Daniel W. Cullen (contact author ) 1 
Bradley G. Stevens 2 
Email address for contact author: bwtegu@gmail.com 
1 Department of Natural Sciences 
University of Maryland Eastern Shore 
Henry O. Tanner Airway Sciences Building, Building #915 
30806 University Boulevard South 
Princess Anne, Maryland 21853 
2 Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center 
Department of Natural Sciences 
University of Maryland Eastern Shore 
Henry O. Tanner Airway Sciences Building, Building #915 
30806 University Boulevard South 
Princess Anne, Maryland 21853 
Located along the U.S. Atlantic 
coast, the coastal shelf waters of the 
Mid-Atlantic are characterized by a 
southward narrowing of shelf width 
from approximately 150 km off New 
York to 30 km off Cape Hatteras, NC 
(Townsend et al., 2006). Dominated 
by sand, bottom sediments in the 
Mid-Atlantic also include clay, grav- 
el, silt, and shell. Bottom habitats, 
known as hard bottom habitats (de- 
fined by Steimle and Zetlin (2000) as 
“multi-dimensional hard structured 
habitat,”) in Mid-Atlantic waters, in- 
cluding those off the coast of Mary- 
land, consist of natural reefs com- 
prising low relief rocky outcroppings, 
gravel, boulders, stony and sea whip 
corals, shellfish beds, mud, and peat 
deposits (Steimle and Zetlin, 2000; 
Ross et al., 2016). Other hard bottom 
structures include shipwrecks, arti- 
ficial reefs, and other manmade ob- 
jects. Although scarce compared with 
soft bottoms, hard bottom habitats 
support a variety of invertebrate and 
commercially important fish species, 
including black sea bass ( Centropris- 
tis striata) (Steimle and Zetlin, 2000). 
In Mid-Atlantic waters, the black 
sea bass is migratory and individu- 
als inhabit coastal hard bottom and 
reef habitats, often at depths of 20 
m to 60 m, during spring and sum- 
mer and offshore shelf waters in 
late autumn and winter when wa- 
ter temperatures decline (Moser and 
Shepherd, 2009). Black sea bass are 
protogynous hermaphrodites that are 
born female and some change sex to 
male later in life (Lavenda, 1949). 
During the spawning season from 
April to October, mature males may 
develop a blue nuchal hump ante- 
rior to the dorsal fin, making them 
distinguishable from females and 
other males (NEFSC 1 ). Inshore black 
1 NEFSC (Northeast Fisheries Science 
Center). 2012. 53 rd northeast regional 
stock assessment workshop (53 rd SAW) 
assessment report. Northeast Fish. Sci. 
Cent. Ref. Doc. 12-05, 559 p. [Available 
from website.] 
