Cold-water corals and large hydrozoans provide essential fish habitat for Lappanella fasciata and Benthocometes robustus

Many fish species are well-known obligatory inhabitants of shallow-water tropical coral reefs but such associations are difficult to study in deep-water environments. We address the association between two deep-sea fish with low mobility and large sessile invertebrates using a compilation of 20 years of unpublished in situ observations. Data were collected on Northeast Atlantic (NEA) island slopes and seamounts, from the Azores to the Canary...