This project will examine a recently discovered midwater community that dominates the open water realm at night over the upper slope of the Hawaiian Islands. This distinctive boundary community is found in waters over bottom depths of approximately 400.700 m and appears to undergo diel vertical migration followed by horizontal migrations into the outer coastal (i.e. the 100m bottom depth) habitat. The major objective of this study is to define clearly the habitat requirements of this community and to determine the extent and magnitude of the inshore.offshore distributions and, thereby, the extent and magnitude of horizontal movements or migrations, and (2) the effect of differing slope bathymetry on the relative abundance of species, the overall abundance of the animals, and on the patterns of horizontal movement. The sampling strategy includes quantitative sampling with large nets, real.time observations of the fauna as revealed by a sonar system and in situ observations to confirm the daytime habitat of the fauna using the PISCES V submersible. Various aspects of the ocean current field will be measured at the study sites by a doppler current profiler, a moored current meter and satellites.
