Common Endemic Target Fish 2002-2011

Underwater dive surveys were carried out in summer and winter along eighteen sights on the leeward side (north) of St Helena. The surveys started in October 2002 to gather information about abundance and distribution of common, endemic and target fish populations. These continued for five years until April 2007. Then there was a break and surveys resumed in 2011. At this point all species, but in particular bullseye and hardback soldiers, showed a decline. The survey is now replaced by the underwater fish and invertebrate survey.

Data and Resources

This dataset has no data

Additional Info

Field	Value
Last Updated	June 24, 2025, 05:47 (PDT)
Created	June 24, 2025, 05:47 (PDT)
Region	Saint Helena
Language	eng
Topic Category	Biota; flora and/or fauna in natural environment
Temporal Extent Start	2002
Temporal Extent End	2007, 2011
Dataset Reference Date	2011
Lineage	A fifty metre transect line was laid down from a pre-defined position on the seabed taken by GPS. Underwater this position was marked permanently with a block in cement. 18 locations were surveyed and for each of them there is only one GPS point which acts as starting and ending point of the transect. The dive took place at approximately 10m depth, with overall depth range between 4/5m and no more than 15m. Two divers swam the 50 metres transect there and back. They swam 2m above the transect line at 10 metres distance from each other. They recorded all fish species 2m either side of the transect line. The first diver focussed on the count of common fish, the second on endemic and target. On the way back divers would swap the task. The number and estimated length of target fish species (Epinephelus adscensionis, Holocentrus adscensionis, Myripristis jacobus and Heteropriacanthus cruentatus) is recorded along with the number of Gymnothorax moringa. The abundance of 13 endemic and 12 common species were recorded using pre-defined abundance groups. Additional data were recorded such as: depth, underwater visibility, cloud cover, sea state and underwater temperature.
West Longitude	-5.78162
South Latitude	-15.9857
East Longitude	-5.6825
North Latitude	-15.9069
Spatial Reference System	EPSG:4326
Responsible Organisation Name	Hidden (personal data protection)
Contact Mail Address	Hidden (personal data protection)
Responsible Party Role	Hidden (personal data protection)
Access Limitations	Restricted, data environmentally and commercially sensitive, however anonymised data is open to researchers on the basis of a research agreement
Use Constraints	Restricted, but open subject to limitations and prior agreement with responsible organisation. Copyright must be cited
Resource Reference	Cite copyright: (c) St Helena Government
Data Format	*tbc
Update Frequency	not planned - survey completed
Accuracy	less than 10 metres
Resource Type	dataset
Original Title	Hidden (internal use only)
Metadata Date	21/12/2015
Metadata Point of Contact	datamanager@saeri.ac.fk
Unique Resource ID	SH-EMD-204