These fish were seen in small groups traveling off the bottom. Submersible transects are not apt to be useful in assessing their abundance. Bait stations conducted from the submersible, however, did attract schools of onaga on several occasions and appears to be a useful tool for their assessment. The ROV, though not useful in snapper resource assessment, produced superior video images of the habitat and associated fauna including probable snapper prey species. The quality of these images greatly benefits species identification and habitat characterization making the ROV a valuable tool for ecosystem evaluation.
Work continues on analyzing and quantifying information from the dive videotapes.
The presence of all observed organisms and their association with the various benthic habitats encountered was recorded. Depth and associated substrate data from swath mapping of the study areas was also obtained. This information was digitized and imported into an Archview GIS format. When completed, the information on species abundance and observed habitat can be coupled with the dive track of the submersible and combined with the swath map information for detailed GIS queries. Another field season consisting of 12 Pisces V and 14 RCV-150 dives is planned for August and September 1999.