Sony^TM MiniDV Handicams (model TRV18E) with wide-angle lenses (0.6X) were used in the housings. Exposure was set to “Auto”, focus was set to “Infinity/manual”, “Long Play” mode was selected, and date/time codes were overlaid on footage. The BRUVS were deployed to provide 90 minutes of film recorded at the seabed and were set ~ 300m apart to provide independence of each replicate unit (Cappo et al. 2003, 2004).

Interrogation of each tape provided the time the BRUVS settled on the seabed and, for each species, the time of first sighting (TFAP), time of first feeding at the bait, the maximum number seen together in any one time on the whole tape (MaxN), time at which MaxN occurred, and the intraspecific and interspecific behaviour. The development of these statistics to measure relative abundance of fishes is reviewed by Cappo et al. (2003, 2004). The common names used in this report include local islander names where possible.

It was planned that a fleet of six BRUVS would be set in selected habitats identified by the towed camera array. However, on the first set two BRUVS were lost due to snagging of the rope in heavy swell, and it was decided to set only 4 BRUVS in flat shelf habitats inshore of the steep shelf break. A total of 23 BRUVS sets were made along 5 of the 21 towed camera transects, and a further set of one unit was made in Comet’s Hole (Appendix 3). Given the prevailing sea conditions and rugose seabed topography, there was a high risk of loss of the BRUVS associated with snagging or submergence of the buoys on the shelf edge, and the towed video camera provided the only useful records of fish species and numbers in those areas. The general area of each BRUVS station and the precise GPS position of each set were recorded (Fig. 2 and Appendix 3).