First visual occurrence data for deep-sea cnidarians in the South-western Colombian Caribbean

Interest in the deep seas has increased dramatically in the last decade, due to the potential presence of natural resources. Although Colombia holds a large submerged territory, knowledge of the seabed and its biodiversity beyond a depth of 1000 meters is very limited. During 2015-2017, Anadarko Colombia Company (ACC) carried out hydrocarbon exploratory activities in the Southern Colombian Caribbean, at depths between 375 m and 2500 m. As an opportunistic result from these activities, several organisms from different phyla were spotted in ROV and towed camera surveys. We analysed a total of 9h 9min 26sec of video and 5066 photographs, looking for benthic and pelagic megafauna. The images were separated by Phylum and Class, and the cnidarians were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. The data presented here corresponds to 108 occurrences of deep-sea cnidarians and one ctenophore. This is the first of a series of datasets reporting visual confirmations on the occurrences of deep-sea organisms in the Colombian Caribbean.