Lead: Charles Messing and Brian Walker

This project prepared and submitted a peer-reviewed manuscript from data generated during a 2011 research cruise funded by NOAA and CIOERT that provided data on deep-water coral and sponge occurrence and densities, and general deep-water benthic assemblage characterization and distribution off the Southeast U.S. coast (east coast of Florida and Florida Keys).

The work was carried out as a part of the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) program and is relevant to two CIMAS themes: under 6) Ecosystem Management, this work will contribute to “an ecosystem approach to management in the Southeast U.S. coastal ocean...marine ecosystem”; under 7) Protection and Restoration of Resources, this work will improve biogeographical characterization of the Southeast U.S. coastal ocean, and will “enable improvements in defining, observing, forecasting, and protecting components of marine protected areas”. The publication addresses NOAA Strategic Science Goal “Oceans” by improving “understanding of ecosystems to inform resource management decisions.”