Coral and sponge observations in deep sea canyons and on seamounts in the Northwest Atlantic

Observations of porifera and cnidarian on the New England Seamount Chain and in deep sea canyons in the Northwestern Atlantic continental margin. Observations were made using underwater video footage collected by the Okeanos Explorers’ ROV Deep Discoverer on cruise legs EX1404L1, EX1404L2 and EX1404L3. Individuals were classified to the lowest possible taxonomic unit and matched to equal or lowest level of taxon in the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). This dataset describes the site and identifies the location and depth of taxonomic observations. Funding to standardize these data to the Darwin Core for sharing through the Ocean Biodiversity Information System was from NOAA grant NA15NOA4000200. This dataset provides 1749 machine-readable observations of deep sea sponges and corals.