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Article: Importance of benthic prey for fishes in coral reef-associated sediments (1).
- Article from:
- Pacific Science
- Article date:
- October 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 University of Hawaii Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Abstract: The importance of open, sandy substrate adjacent to coral reef's as habitat and a food source for fishes has been little studied in most shallow tropical waters in the Pacific, including Hawai'i. In this study, in Hanalei Bay, Hawai'i, we identified and quantified the major invertebrate fauna (larger than 0.5 ram) in the well-characterized sands adjoining the shallow fringing reefs. Concurrently, we identified the fish species that seemed to make substantial use of these sand habitats, estimated their density there, sampled their got contents to examine trophic links with the sand habitat, and made other observations and collections to determine the times, ...