Increasingly restrictive management regulations have greatly reduced the utility of fishery‐dependent data for characterizing temporal changes in the abundance of managed fish populations, so fishery‐independent data are becoming more important for the accurate assessment of stock status. A notable downside to fishery‐independent data is the high cost of conducting surveys, and efforts to maximize survey efficiency are critical given ongoing reductions in agency funding. We conducted a pilot study to explore the utility of classifying side‐scan‐sonar mapping data to provide a practical a priori characterization of reef habitat in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. An analysis of side‐scan‐sonar mapping data identified five distinct reef habitat types (low‐relief hard bottom, mixed hard bottom, fragmented hard bottom, ledges, and potholes) that were subsequently sampled with stereo baited remote underwater video (S‐BRUV) arrays and trap‐mounted GoPro cameras. The permutational analysis of variance indicated that the assemblage structure of reef fish differed significantly (P < 0.01) among all of the pairs of habitats except ledges and fragmented hard bottom; assemblage structure did not differ among cameras (P = 0.45). Overall species richness and diversity were significantly higher in the habitats with greater vertical relief, as were the abundances of several economically and ecologically important reef fishes, although many taxa were observed across all of the habitat types. Benthic habitats that are identified from side‐scan‐sonar mapping data are important determinants of reef‐fish assemblage structure and may prove to be useful as a stratification scheme for reef‐fish surveys, although additional research is necessary to explore the transferability of these results to the rest of the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

中文翻译：

---

源自边扫声纳制图数据分类的底栖生物栖息地是墨西哥东部湾礁-鱼类组合结构的重要决定因素。

越来越严格的管理法规大大减少了依赖渔业的数据来描述受管理鱼类种群数量随时间变化的效用，因此，独立于渔业的数据对于准确评估种群状况变得越来越重要。与渔业无关的数据的显着缺点是进行调查的成本高昂，鉴于机构供资的持续减少，为最大程度提高调查效率而做出的努力至关重要。我们进行了一项试点研究，以探索对侧扫声纳地图数据进行分类的实用性，从而为墨西哥湾东部的珊瑚礁栖息地提供实用的先验表征。对侧扫声纳制图数据的分析确定了五种不同的礁石生境类型（低浮雕硬底，混合硬底，破碎硬底，壁架，和坑洼），随后使用立体声诱饵远程水下视频（S-BRUV）阵列和陷井式GoPro摄像机进行采样。方差的排列分析表明，礁鱼的组装结构显着不同（P  <  0.01）在所有生境对中，除了壁架和破碎的硬底；相机之间的组装结构没有差异（P  =  0.45）。尽管在所有生境类型中都观察到许多类群，但具有较大垂直垂向的生境中总体物种丰富度和多样性明显较高，一些经济上和生态上重要的礁鱼的丰度也很高。从侧面扫描声纳制图数据确定的底栖生境是礁鱼组合结构的重要决定因素，并且可能被证明可作为礁鱼调查的分层方案，尽管有必要进行更多的研究来探索这些结果的可移植性到墨西哥东部海湾的其余部分。