Abstract

Bermuda imposed a fish pot ban in April 1990. Beginning in June 1991, a series of monthly visual census samples were taken of the reef fish assemblages at each of four stations distributed around the perimeter of the Bermuda reef platform. The study utilized the Bohnsack and Bannerot method, a stationary diver census technique, in a repeated measures design to assess changes in abundance in key species as well as in fish community structure. A total of 69 species in 24 families have been recorded to date with the parrotfishes (Scaridae) generally dominating the assemblages in terms of species richness and in biomass. Statistical power analysis indicated that mean abundance of four selected parrotfish species was estimated at an acceptable level of accuracy. Comparisons of abundance estimates between the first and second year of the study for the selected parrotfish species indicated that there were relatively small differences in abundance. However, a comparison of the second and third year revealed that the mean abundance of three of these four species had increased significantly in the third year.

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