The biodiversity of the deep-water fish assemblages of coral and non coral areas in the Eastern Ionian Sea was examined in the framework of the... » More

The biodiversity of the deep-water fish assemblages of coral and non coral areas in the Eastern Ionian Sea was examined in the framework of the sampling cruises of the 7FP EU research project CoralFISH conducted by HCMR in the Eastern Ionian Sea. Experimental long line fishing was carried out in deep waters from 300 to 800 m depth in June and October 2010. Sampling was conducted in two sub-areas: a coral area-CA (characterised by widespread frequent presence of various deep cold water coral species) off the southern coast of Cephalonia island and a non coral area-NCA (characterised by very rare presence of deep water corals) off the northern coast of the same island. Both areas, which were surveyed acoustically by multibeam sonar and underwater video (ROV) prior to biological sampling, presented a similar depth range, substrate (mud and rocks) and fishing effort levels. Comparisons of coral and non-coral areas spatially and temporally in univariate diversity and other fish and coral metrics as well as multivariate patterns are reported and discussed in relation to cold water corals importance to fish assemblages and fishing.

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