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Texas

Florida

Georgia

Louisiana

AlabamaMississippi

ArkansasSouth Carolina

81°0'W

81°0'W

86°30'W

86°30'W

92°0'W

92°0'W

97°30'W

97°30'W

31°0'

N

31°0'

N

25°30

'N

25°30

'N

Location$ USGS DISCOVRE sites# Known cold-water coral occurrences!. Approx. wellhead location

Bathymetry M0 - 2021 - 5051 - 100101 - 500> 500 ¹

Data sources:1. Brooke, S. and W.W. Schroeder. 2007. State of Deep Coral Ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico region: Texas to the Florida Straits. In: Lumsden, S.E., Hourigan TF, Bruckner AW, Dorr G (Eds). The State of Deep Coral Ecosystems of the United States. NOAA Technical Memo. CRCP-3. Silver Spring MD, pp 271-306.2. Morgan, L.E., C.F. Tsao, J.M. Guinotte. 2006. Status of Deep Sea Corals in US Waters, with Recommendations for their Conservation and Management. 64 pp. Marine Conservation Biology Institute, Bellevue, WA. 3. Scanlon, K.M., Waller, R.G., Sirotek, A.R., Knisel, J.M., O’Malley, J.J., and Alesandrini, Stian, in review, USGS Cold-Water Coral Geographic Database—Gulf of Mexico and western North Atlantic, version 1.0: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2008–13514. Schroeder, W.W., S.D. Brooke, J.B. Olson, B. Phaneuff, J.J. McDonough, III and P. Etnoyer. 2005. Occurrence of deep-water Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata in the Gulf of Mexico. In: A. Freiwald, J.M. Roberts (Eds). Cold-water Corals and Ecosystems. Springer, Berlin, pp 297–307.5. NOAA6. USGS DISCOVRE

The map depicts locations of cold-water coral occurrences and USGS long-term coral ecosystem studies for the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) relative to the location of the BP oil wellhead.USGS with collaborators from MMS, UNC-Wilmington and NOAA initiated multi-disciplinary research on cold-water corals in the GOM in 2004. In 2007, research on cold-watercorals was continued through the USGS DISCOVRE program. These study sites will be revisited in September 2010 to continue long-term assessment of these sensitive habitats.

Cold-water Coral Ecosystem Studies - U.S. Gulf of Mexico

GULF OF MEXICO

For further information: http://fl.biology.usgs.gov/DISCOVRE/index.html

0 100 20050Miles

0 100 200 30050Kilometers