Publications

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science to gather biogeographic information in support of this evaluation around the Main Hawaiian Islands . The complexity of products from this assessment range from simple animal distribution maps to mathematical models depicting the predicted distributions of animals.

Chapter 3 pertains to benthic habitats and corals. An understanding of the distribution of marine benthic habitats and associated biota in the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) is necessary in order to assess potential direct and indirect effects of renewable energy development.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science to gather biogeographic information in support of this evaluation around the Main Hawaiian Islands . The complexity of products from this assessment range from simple animal distribution maps to mathematical models depicting the predicted distributions of animals.

Chapter 3 pertains to benthic habitats and corals. An understanding of the distribution of marine benthic habitats and associated biota in the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) is necessary in order to assess potential direct and indirect effects of renewable energy development.

As image-based identifications become a predominant method for deep-sea species characterizations, there is a need to evaluate the accuracy of species- and genus-level identifications from video and still images to provide a reliable measure of biodiversity. This study presents a validation of the ability to make accurate image-based identifications of black coral species in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico from standard-definition video collected by a remotely operated vehicle.

Benthic invertebrates; habitat; underwater survey; species distribution models; model validation; invertebrate size structure; density; Eastern Bering Sea; Alaska

Species distribution modeling is a useful tool for informing ecosystems management. However, validation of model predictions through independent surveys is rarely attempted in marine environments, which are challenging to study and often contain sensitive habitats. We conducted an underwater camera survey of the eastern Bering Sea slope and outer shelf as an independent test of species distribution modeling of deep-sea corals, sponges and sea whips based on bottom trawl survey data. 

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.