Porifera; new demosponges; Gulf of Alaska; North Pacific Ocean
Two new species, Hamacantha (Vomerula) cassanoi n. sp. and Prosuberites salgadoi n. sp., are described from the eastern Gulf of Alaska in the North Pacific Ocean. These are the first records of the genera Hamacantha and Prosuberites from Alaska. We also report two geographic range extensions for the region.
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Porifera; Aleutian Islands; British Columbia; Endeavour Ridge; Gulf of Alaska; New Zealand; North Pacific; Southwest Pacific; Latrunculia; Biannulata; Bomba; Uniannulata; Latrunclava; new genus; new subgenus; new species
Extensive new collections of latrunculid sponges from British Columbia, the Aleutian Islands, and the Gulf of Alaska, have extended the distributions of known species Latrunculia oparinae Samaai & Krasokhin, 2002, from the Russian Sea of Okhotsk, L. velera Lehnert et al., 2006, from the Aleutian Islands, and L. austini Samaai et al., 2006, from British Columbia. New material has facilitated detailed re-descriptions of these species and in situ images have improved our understanding of their living morphology and ecology.
This data release provides surficial seafloor characteristics point data across the Gulf of Alaska for spatial extent: West longitude -154.586589; East longitude -136.067554; North latitude 60.899214; South latitude 56.230582, as digitized directly from NOS smooth sheets published from 1892 to 2001 and archived at the National Geophysical Data Center’s online data portal (NDGC, http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov).
model; habitat
The purpose of the analysis was to identify the most important abiotic habitat characteristics related to red tree coral presence and to determine if these characteristics could be used for the prediction of red tree corals in other areas. The purpose of the study, however, was of a broader scope: to demonstrate how hierarchical Bayesian logistic mixed-effects models can appropriately be applied to spatially autocorrelated observations on transects in fisheries and marine ecology studies.
bycatches (fisheries); conservation; deep sea coral; marine resources conservation; monitoring; sponges
This report details the process and outcomes of this workshop, which will provide background to the science implementation team and guide the development of a science plan for the upcoming Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program Southeast Regional Research Initiative in 2016-2019.
cruise report; canyons
Beginning on August 24, 2016, a multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers, aboard NOAA Ship Pisces, spent 12 days-at-sea exploring three deep-water canyons off the coast of North Carolina. Specifically, the team targeted Keller, Pamlico, and Hatteras canyons.
Using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and towed camera system (TCS), deep-sea corals, sponges, and seafloor habitats were visually surveyed for the first time in areas of longtime trawl fishing off northern California. During an 11-day cruise aboard the R/V Point Sur 8-18 September 2014, researchers completed 6 dives with the AUV and 9 deployments of the TCS, and spent over 42 hours underwater at depths of 586-1169 meters from the Oregon-California border to the Mendocino Ridge.
Parasitism; Pioneer settlement; Climax community; Recruitment; Host-limited
The Hawaiian gold coral is a parasitic zoantharian that colonizes other deep corals and secretes a protein skeleton that over millennia can grow and more than double the original mean size of the host colony. Surveys at six known coral beds in the Hawaiian Archipelago found mature gold coral to be a common taxon and dominant at the geologically older sites.
Benthos, Deep-sea Animals, Deep-sea Fishes, Deep Sea Corals, Equipment And Supplies, Habitat, Marine Biology, Observations, Oceanography, Research, Sponges, Underwater Exploration, Underwater Photography
Octocoral, Gorgonian, Gulf of Mexico, Mesophotic zone, Oil spill, Health assessment
Hard-bottom mesophotic reefs along the 40- fathom (73 m) shelf edge in the northern Gulf of Mexico were investigated for potential effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill from the Macondo well in April 2010.