In August of 2016, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer conducted the first-ever deepwater exploration of the Wake Atoll Unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. In total, the ship conducted 14 ROV dives ranging from 350 to 3,136 meters depth. All explored seamounts are flat-topped guyots with mainly pillow lavas coated in ferromanganese crust exposed on their lower flanks. 

Shallow coral reef and seamount-based ecosystems associated with Pacific islands and atolls host a high and abundant biodiversity, yet many of the ecosystems are threatened by a range of climatic, oceanographic, and anthropogenic stresses. In these types of environments, the morphology and composition of the seabed have been shown to be useful proxies/surrogates for the distribution and abundance of benthic organisms, as well as the other organisms and communities that depend on them.

The Phoenix Islands Protected Area, in the central Pacific waters of the Republic of Kiribati, is a model for large marine protected area (MPA) development and maintenance, but baseline records of the protected biodiversity in its largest environment, the deep sea (>200 m), have not yet been determined. Here, we present baseline deep-sea coral species distribution and community assembly patterns within the Scleractinia, Octocorallia, Antipatharia, and Zoantharia with respect to different seafloor features and abiotic environmental variables across bathyal depths (200–2500 m).

Coordinated deep-water exploration from 2015 to 2017 enabled new insights into the status of deep-sea marine debris throughout the central and western Pacific Basin via ROV expeditions conducted onboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer and RV Falkor. These expeditions included sites in United States protected areas and monuments, other Exclusive Economic Zones, international protected areas, and areas beyond national jurisdiction.

The purpose of this cruise (project number NF-19-01) in particular was to collect multibeam sonar bathymetry, acoustic backscatter, remotely operated vehicle optical validation, and fishery acoustics within coastal waters of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Scientists collected high-resolution multibeam and fishery acoustic data in mid-water depths approximately 11 to 3066 meters, in order to continue characterizing seafloor habitats within all U.S. States, Territories, and Commonwealths.

This photo-identification collection is intended to provide a visual reference to commonly observed deep-sea corals in the Southeast United States, Gulf of Mexico, and U.S. Caribbean, as a consensus aid for taxonomic identification of these organisms. This document also aims to provide an effectual representation of the diversity of coral fauna encountered in the deep-sea of this greater U.S. Southeast region (defined here as > 200 m deep) by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, using remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer in years 2017-2019.

The objective of this photo identification guide is to provide documentation of Alcyonacean specimens collected and/or photographed from the Pinnacle Trend, using in-situ and ex-situ photography, with light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.

Effective management of marine resources requires an understanding of the spatial distribution of biologically important communities. The north-western Gulf of Mexico contains diverse marine ecosystems at a large range of depths and geographic settings. To better understand the distribution of these marine habitats across large geographic areas under consideration for marine sanctuary status, presence-only predictive modelling was used.

In 2016, a Draft Environmental Impact Statement proposed the expansion of the current Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary boundaries to incorporate an additional 15 reefs and banks, including Elvers Bank. Antipatharians (black corals) were collected within the proposed expansion sites and analysed using morphological and molecular methods. A new species, Distichopathes hickersonae, collected at 172 m depth on Elvers Bank, is described within the family Aphanipathidae.

Species distribution modeling provides a cost-effective means of identifying potential deep-sea coral and sponge habitat over large areas to inform these management decisions and data collection. Here we describe good practices for deep-sea coral and sponge species distribution modeling, especially in the context of data collection and management applications.