This is a comprehensive, up-to-date guide, detailing 161 coral taxa identified from museum collections, primary literature, and video records. The guide provides information for targeting new collections and identifying areas of high abundance and indicator species of vulnerable marine ecosystems.
This report summarizes the objectives, accomplishments, and outcomes of NOAA's West Coast Deep-Sea Coral Initiative, funded by the Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program. The four-year initiative (2018-2021) was designed to explore, map, characterize, and conduct research on deep-sea coral and sponge habitats in the Pacific Fishery Management Council region, inclusive of waters off California, Oregon, and Washington.
In Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary region within the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, sponges thrive among diverse biological and geological habitats between 16–200+ m deep (i.e., coral reefs and communities, algal nodules, and coralline algae reefs, mesophotic reefs, patch reefs, scarps, ridges, soft substrate, and rocky outcrops).
The effort has greatly improved our understanding of deep-sea corals and sponges off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington, particularly within na
In 2023, a series of expeditions will help NOAA and partners to better understand the diversity and extent of ecologically important seafloor communities in
A multiyear, international study is using innovative technology to shed light on what red corals need to reproduce and sustain their populations, and how the