Invertebrate bycatch from bottom trawls in the New Zealand EEZ

Benthic invertebrate bycatch was collected, as part of the Conservation Services Programme Observer Project, from 35 bottom trawls at water depths ranging from 130 m to 1250 m, mainly from the northern, eastern and southern edges of the Chatham Rise, the Bounty Plateau, the Campbell Plateau and the southern Norfolk Ridge/Three Kings Rise region. A total of 398 samples had robust locality data and yielded a minimum of 216 separate taxa, from eight phyla. Sponges, branched and un - branched corals, ophiuroids and decapod crustaceans were well represented. The presence of anthozoans appeared to correspond to higher numbers of species at four of the most common trawl locations. The larger branched corals (gorgonians and anthipatharians) were collected predominantly from the Three Kings Rise, the Bounty Plateau and the Campbell Plateau, whereas the smaller forms (actiniarians, scleractinians and other anthozoans) were collected predominantly from the northern and southeastern Chatham Rise. The lack of an asymptote in the relationship between 'sampling effort' (i.e. trawls) and number of species implies that at least some of the assemblages have not yet been 'fully sampled'.