Scleractinian corals collected during the HMNZS Tui cruises to the southwest Pacific

During two scientific cruises on HMNZS Tui in 1986, fragments of scleractinian corals were collected from rock dredge samples taken from a total of 19 stations in the Cook Islands (Suwarrow, Manihiki, Pukapuka, Tema Reef, Nassau and Rarotonga), Western Samoa (the Machias Seamount) and Niue. Dredge samples were collected at depths ranging from 346m to 4689m. These depths are well beyond the range in which hermatypic corals can grow in the Indo-Pacific. Coral fragments were identified in order to determine their origin. The April/May 1986 cruise to the Manihiki Plateau and adjacent areas of the SW Pacific was part of a tripartite Programme undertaken by the Governments of New Zealand, Australia and the United States of America in cooperation with the Committee for the Coordination of Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in the South Pacific Offshore Areas (CCOP/SOPAC) to carry out a joint programme of marine geoscientific research and mineral resources studies in the South Pacific region. A second cruise was undertaken in July 1986 to the southern Cook Islands.