Study on the nursery functions of the drifting seaweed rafts:a new continuous monitoring approach

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In this study, we developed a new method to simultaneously monitor drifting seaweed rafts and associated fish fauna; we succeeded in estimating the position of the rafts and the species composition and density of associated fishes. Among the observed fish species, there was a positive relationship between the filefish numbers and the drifting period. There was a negative relationship between the number of amberjack species and rockfish species. The number of amberjack species was also related to the light level, water temperature and salinity. The accumulation of more samples from future studies will surely allow us to elucidate the details of the relationships between the associated fish fauna and its surrounding environment.