Near-Island Enhancement in Mesopelagic Micronekton Assemblages off Hawaiʻi
September 22, 2023
Here we show that the nearshore environment off the west coast of Hawaiʻi exhibits an increased biomass and abundance of mesopelagic micronekton.
The west coast of Hawaiʻi Island hosts elevated primary production compared to offshore waters and an abundance of large pelagic animals for reasons that are not entirely understood. Here we show that the nearshore environment off the west coast of Hawaiʻi exhibits an increased biomass and abundance of mesopelagic micronekton.
Regardless of mechanism, this temporally persistent, high biomass, largely nonmigratory layer of mesopelagic micronekton is different from the better known migratory mesopelagic boundary layer assemblage and may provide food to deeper diving marine mammals and pelagic fishes possibly explaining the aggregation of large pelagic animals in this region.
Drazen JC, Clark BH, Gove JM, Phipps JE, Copeland AM, Lecky J, Green JAM, Kobayashi DR, Turner JR,Whitney JL, Williams GJ 2023. Near-island enhancement in mesopelagic micronekton assemblages off Hawai'i Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 199: 104107.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104107