The Importance of Artificial Reef Epifauna to Black Sea Bass Diets in the Middle Atlantic Bight

Abstract

Abstract The effective use of artificial reefs to enhance populations of black sea bass Centropristis striates along the Atlantic coast of North America requires an understanding of the species' habitat requirements, including food. We examined the diets of adult black sea bass collected from two artificial reefs off New Jersey during August–October 1993 to assess the importance of reef epifauna to the predator. One reef was mature and colonized by an epifauna typical for this habitat in the area. The other reef, 20 km away and in a similar environment, was new and uncolonized by this epifauna. There was no significant difference between reefs in black sea bass diets, which were dominated by early benthic instar, juvenile rock crabs Cancer irroralus. Most of the prey, including the rock crabs, were not specifically associated with the reefs or can be equally common off the reefs. These results and those from similar studies indicate that black sea bass use reefs for shelter but may not depend on the reef-...