We define habitat-forming deep-sea corals as those families of octocorals, hexacorals, and stylasterids with species that live deeper than 200 m, with a majority of species exhibiting complex branching morphology and a sufficient size to provide substrata or refugia to associated species. We present 2,649 records from eleven institutions on eight habitat-forming deep-sea coral families, including octocorals in the families Coralliidae, Isididae, Paragorgiidae and Primnoidae, hexacorals in the families Antipathidae, Oculinidae and Caryophylliidae, and stylasterids in the family Stylasteridae. The data are ranked according to record quality. We compare family range and distribution as predicted by historical records to the family extent as informed by recent collections aboard the National Oceanic of Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Ocean Exploration 2002 Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition (GOASEX). We present a map of one of these families, the Primnoidae.

Available in English.

Marine Conservation Biology: The Science of Maintaining the Sea’s Biodiversity, edited by MCBI President Elliott Norse and Larry Crowder, Director of Duke University’s Center for Marine Conservation.

Marine Conservation Biology brings together for the first time in a single volume leading experts from around the world to apply the lessons and thinking of conservation biology to marine issues. Contributors offer penetrating insights on the nature of marine biodiversity, what threatens it, and what humans can and must do to recover the biological integrity of the world’s estuaries, coastal seas, and oceans.

Available in English.

Source: WWF

Commercial fishing for groundfish species has occurred for over 400 years of recorded history in the area that has become the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Convention Area. Increasing fishing power of vessels from many European and North American countries put growing pressure on the stocks, a number of which are seriously overfished. International management began with the formation of the International Convention for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, which NAFO subsequently replaced in 1979.

Available in English.

In calling for a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) reflects the views of a great many people, governments and organisations. Here is a miscellany of quotations from diverse sources – all united by their passionate plea for something to be done NOW, before it is too late.

Available in English.

This Report focuses on one of the most well established and developed RFMOs in the world: the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO). With its origins in a regional commission that was established in 1949, it has been in existence since 1979 with the mandate “to contribute through consultation and co-operation to the optimum utilization, rational management and conservation of the fishery resources” of the Convention area. Yet despite this, its adoption of a wide range of conservation and management measures, and a well developed institutional structure, NAFO has been unable to achieve its mandate and as of 2005, 10 stocks under NAFO’s competence are currently under moratoria.

Available in English.

Medicines From the Deep: The Importance of Protecting the High Seas from Bottom Trawling, March 2005. Medical research suggests that novel compounds from the deep sea hold tremendous promise for treating human disease, highlighting the need to protect the fragile deep ocean bottom from destructive fishing practices like bottom trawling. Report produced by MCBI, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Principal author: Sara Maxwell.

Source: WWF

Deep in the cold, dark ocean, impressive coral reefs and thickets meander along the edges of continental slopes and seamounts. Vibrantly coloured and delicately branched corals, sponges and hydroids weave intricate structures providing living space for a multitudeof invertebrates – such as lobsters, crabs, shrimps, sea fans, worms and starfish – as well as for many commercially important fish species.

Available in English.