Regional fish recruitment and benthic habitat surveys, Great Barrier Reef

Fish recruitment was surveyed in 5 regions of the Great Barrier Reef, located between 16°S and 24°S, in April of 1985, 1986 and 1987. Five reefs were surveyed in four regions (Cairns, Townsville, Whitsundays and Swains) and 7 reefs were surveyed in the Capricorn-Bunker region. Within each region, reefs separated by distances of several km to tens of km were sampled. These reefs had been originally selected in 1984 as presenting a consistent reef slope habitat, to minimise habitat differences amongst reefs.The oblique reef slopes of these 27 reefs were sampled. At each of 3 haphazardly-chosen locations, 8 transects (40 x 2m) were laid out parallel to the reef crest, within a depth zone of 5 to 8 m. The transect length was then swum and the new recruits of a selected list of species counted.In addition, the benthos occurring at each 1m interval along each transect was recorded in order to characterize the benthic habitat. This research was undertaken to investigate spatial and temporal variability in fish recruitment on the Great Barrier Reef. The reefs surveyed were:Cairns Region; Arlington Reef, Hastings Reef, Michaelmas Cay, Moore Reef and Thetford ReefTownsville Region; Davies Reef, John Brewer Reef, Lodestone Reef, Rib Reef and Wheeler ReefWhitsundays Region; Reef No. 19-131, Reef No. 19-138, Reef No. 20-104, Hook Island and Showers ReefSwains Region; Reef No. 21-583, Chinaman Reef, Dicks Reef, Horseshoe Reef and Sanctuary ReefCapricorn-Bunker Region; Fairfax Island, Fitzroy Reef, Heron Island, Lady Musgrave Island, LLewellyn Reef, One Tree Island and Wistari Reef