Cold-water coral mounds and sponge-beds as habitats for demersal fish on the Norwegian shelf

The importance of cold-water coral (CWC) mounds and sponge-beds as habitat for demersal fish was examined in the Træna Deep marine protected area and adjacent areas of the Norwegian continental shelf. Standardised longline fishing was conducted twice, in June and March, and predetermined fishing effort was allocated to multiple plots with varying densities of small CWC mounds and sponges, plus control plots with neither of these habitats. Catches within all examined habitats were dominated by the commercially exploited Brosme brosme (representing >70% of the total catch) followed by Galeus melastomus, Chimaera monstrosa, Etmopterus spinax and the commercially exploited Molva molva. Positive correlations were found between catch rates of B. brosme, G. melastomus and C. monstrosa and the density of small CWC mounds at one or both sampling occasions. No correlations were found between the catch rates of the same three species and sponge density; thus the sponge-beds did not seem to represent an ecologically equivalent habitat to the CWCs. On a local scale the CWC habitat appeared to attract higher abundances of B. brosme, G. melastomus and C. monstrosa; however, the differences in catch rates between coral and non-coral areas were quite low (2-4 times) and for most species the fish-habitat relationships varied temporarily and with the spatial scale used to delineate the habitat. Based on the methods and the results of this study and the fact that CWCs only occupy a very small proportion of the Norwegian shelf, the importance of CWCs as habitat for the populations of the demersal fish species examined is judged as marginal.