CIOERT SEADESC II report. Extreme corals 2011, South Atlantic deep coral survey : NOAA Ship Pisces, Cruise PC-11-03 (11), May 31-June 11, 2011 Extreme corals 2011, South Atlantic deep coral survey

"In June 2011, a 12 day research cruise was conducted by NOAA National Marine Fisheries in collaboration with the Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research, and Technology (CIOERT) at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University (HBOI-FAU), and other academic and federal partners (including NOAA NCCOS, Florida State University, and University of Louisiana), using the NOAA Ship Pisces and the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center's ROVs. This cruise is part of an ongoing study of deep-sea coral habitats off the coast of the southeast United States. Primary research objectives of the multi-year science plan include mapping and characterizing coral and fish populations inside and adjacent to new managed areas. The focus of the 2011 expedition is to explore hard grounds out to 550 m depth off south Florida, with emphasis on assessing areas that are coral/sponge habitat and areas that are still open to bottom fishing activities (Allowable Fishing Areas) within the managed areas. This Final Cruise Report provides a detailed analysis of the benthic habitats, biota, and fish populations at each dive site based on the ROV photo/video transects, CTD casts, and multibeam sonar surveys. This report also provides a SEADESC Level II Report (Appendix 2) for each dive site which includes: cruise and ROV dive metadata, figures showing each ROV dive track and habitat zone overlaid on multibeam sonar maps, dive track data (start and end latitude, longitude, depth), objectives, general description of the habitat and biota, and images of the biota and habitat that characterize the dive site. In addition, the SEADESC Level II Report provides quantitative analyses of each dive site including: 1) CPCe 4.1© Coral Point Count analysis of percent cover of benthic biota and substrate type, 2) densities of benthic macro-fauna (# organisms/m2 for each species), and 3) densities of fish populations (# individuals/km for each species)"--Page 3. 2013 Project no. II-CO-DCE-5 Grant no. NA09OAR4320073 OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) CoRIS (Coral Reef Information System) Submitted Public Domain 1877