The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries department has successfully completed a series of 21 expeditions over a span of several years to learn more about aquatic life.
According to a Jan. 25 NOAA fisheries press release, the project—called the Southeast Deep Coral Initiative—studied deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems in the federal waters of the U.S. South Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Caribbean.
"A NOAA collaboration with extensive local, academic and federal partners has greatly expanded our understanding of deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems in the southeast United States," the agency said in the release.
Autonomously and remotely operated ships and submersibles, and other equipment, were used in the research.
"Complementary research projects conducted in partnership with universities focused on seafloor mapping, species identification, habitat suitability modelling, environmental and oceanographic monitoring, and data analysis," the news release said.
The research increased the number of coral and sponge observations in the West Florida Wall by 450%, NOAA Fisheries reported.
"This area is of particular interest to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council due to its significant coral aggregations," NOAA Fisheries said. "These records informed the Council’s decision to combine three small proposed protected areas into one much larger and more effective one."
Researchers included more than 45 students from the high school to Ph.D. level. The findings will be shared with other scientists, according to the release.
"These collective efforts provided important information needed to support the management of fishing and other activities that may affect deep-sea coral ecosystems throughout the region," NOAA said.
