coral reef ecology; coral reefs and islands; habitat; marine ecology; marine ecosystem management; research

Off the southeastern United States coast and in the Gulf of Mexico there are several unique and productive deep-sea habitats that have been difficult to study with conventional methods because the bottom topography is very rugged and overlain by strong currents (e.g., Gulf Stream). This project was conceived from a need to better document and understand these ecosystems and to rapidly provide research data that are generally not otherwise available.