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PACIFIC SCIENCE, VoL XXII, July 1968 
whole appeared to be fixed over a specific area 
of the bottom. It is this feature which suggests 
that the large number of fish be considered an 
aggregation rather than a school. See Figures 5, 
6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. 
The schools of Naso h exacanthus also ap- 
peared to be oriented with respect to the aggre- 
gation of Chaetodon miliaris but not nearly as 
tightly as the latter appeared to be oriented to 
the sea floor topography. The Naso h exacanthus 
schools were located peripherally to the aggrega- 
tion of Chaetodon miliaris and over the terrace 
rather than beyond the face of the escarpments. 
However, schools of the deep water snapper 
Etelis carhunculus did occur peripherally in re- 
lation to the Chaetodon miliaris aggregation at 
the level of the terrace, or deeper in open water 
beyond the escarpments. This species was not 
observed in shallower water, but it was also ob- 
served near the crest of the escarpments or be- 
yond in deeper water where no aggregations of 
Chaetodon miliaris occurred. 
These aggregations did not occur continuously 
along the crests of the escarpments, but appeared 
to occur wherever an elevated rocky area broke 
Fig. 9- Escarpment between the Mamala and 
Lualualei terraces at 200 meters. The "Asherah” is 
shown off the face of the escarpment and a fish 
aggregation above the crest. (Drawing by Ken Shutt.) 
the crest profile. While the face of the outcrops 
of reef rock had had an abundant population of 
fish, there was a scant population along the face 
of the escarpments. The commonest species was 
an unidentified priacanthid-like fish that ap- 
peared to dwell in shallow holes on the face of 
the escarpments at distances of 10 meters or 
more apart. Small carangids were occasionally 
observed at all depths studied on or beyond the 
face of the escarpments. There were cavities of 
various sizes in the rocky areas. Those of ap- 
parent depth were usually thickly crowded by 
myripristids and holocentrids. Holocentrus scy- 
throps or a species very much like it appears to 
be common. Spiny lobsters were also common 
and, while no certain identification of the 
species was made, Panulirus japonic us would at 
least be anticipated to occur since it appears to 
be commoner in deeper water within the range 
of scuba. Spiny lobsters were sighted in depths 
greater than 140 meters. A large moray eel, 
resembling Gymnothorax flavimargjnatus , was 
seen at a depth of 150 meters adjacent to a 
cavity in the rock. 
The Terrace Community 
For the most part the terraces were covered 
by sand with little apparent epifauna. Fish were 
also largely absent. A large school of kawa- 
kawa ( Euthynnus y ait o') was observed, ap- 
parently foraging over a rubble- and sand- 
covered area about 150 meters deep. The fish 
were very near the bottom, less than a meter 
above it. Rays, probably Dasyatis hawaiiensis 
and certainly Aetobatus narinari, were not in- 
frequently sighted on or over sandy areas. A 
very large Dasyatis hawaiiensis was taken in a 
small trawl at a depth of less than 50 meters off 
Pokai Bay from a sand bottom, and dredging at 
between 150 and 75 meters largely in sand 
north of Kepuhi Point resulted in an abundant 
catch of the heart urchin Brissus latecarinatus 
and many fragments of shells from the hatchet 
clam Pinna muricata . While the heart urchin is 
normally buried in the sand and is therefore not 
detectable visually, very extensive beds of the 
clam were observed from the "Asherah” and by 
submarine photographic transects off western 
Oahu and elsewhere in depths between 35 and 
100 meters. One such clam bed observed from 
the "Asherah” was at least 500 meters across. 
