The Expanding Pacific Research and Exploration of Submerged Systems, or EXPRESS initiative is a multi-year, multi-agency project to survey and map undersea habitat throughout the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem. Scientists and engineers from NOAA, the Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) conducted a 29-day expedition aboard NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker along the California, Oregon, and Washington coasts, including sites within four National Marine Sanctuaries. GFOE’s ROVs and satellite system were used for this telepresence-enabled cruise, in partnership with OER. This EXPRESS expedition represented an unprecedented level of government cooperation. Eight different NOAA offices along with USGS and BOEM contributed financial or scientific expertise. During this expedition, researchers surveyed deep-sea coral and sponge environments off the U.S. West Coast. This cruise was part of a four-year West Coast Deep Sea Coral Initiative, supported by the Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program, to better understand the basic biology, abundance, and diversity of deep-sea coral throughout the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem as well as their ecological role with invertebrates and fish. The researchers collected samples to help identify West Coast corals and sponges, and revisit previously surveyed sites to document changes that have occurred over time. One was to collect essential fish habitat baseline information at 12 sites along the West Coast. The Pacific Fishery Management Council proposed modifications to these habitats to better support commercially important groundfish. Another important goal of characterizing this undersea habitat was to inform possible locations offshore northern and central California for wind energy development. Characterization identified sensitive habitats to avoid when establishing future offshore wind energy sites.

This cruise used the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason II to: explore 4-6 new sites for the occurrence of deep water coral reefs; made collections of Lophelia and other corals for genetic and physiological studies, made collections of communities associated with Lophelia and other corals for ecological studies; collected quantitative digital imagery for characterization of sites and coral communities; collect spatially explicit physical near bottom oceanographic data; deploy cameras and microbial arrays; reposition larval traps and current meters; collected push cores; and conducted a series of linked archaeological/ biological investigations on deep water shipwrecks.

This dataset contains oceanographic data (ADCP, CTD, ROV, Jason, Lander, SCS, Vehicle, XBT), images, and documentation. The primary goals of this cruise were as follows: Exploration of new sites and new areas within known sites, sampling of corals and associated fauna for biodiversity and biogeography, community sampling at seep and coral habitats, sediment sampling at soft sediment sites for biogeochemistry and diversity, collections of corals for live coral experiments, water sampling for water chemistry and microbial diversity, sediment, water, and faunal samples for eDNA work, geological observations and sampling for geomorphology, and lander deployments.

NOAA’s Deep-Sea Coral Research and Technology Program (DSCRTP) compiles a national database of the known locations of deep-sea corals and sponges in U.S. territorial waters and beyond. Demersal and benthic fish occurrences that were recorded along with coral and sponge surveys are also included. The database is comprehensive, standardized, quality controlled, and networked to outside resources. The database schema accommodates both linear (trawls, transects) and point (samples, observations) data. The structure of the database is tailored to occurrence records of all the azooxanthellate corals, a subset of all corals, and all sponge species. Records shallower than 50 m are generally excluded in order to focus on predominantly deep-water species – the mandate of the DSCRTP. The intention is to limit the overlap with light-dependent (and mostly shallow-water) corals. The database version included in the current accession is 20241022-1 and currently holds 1265481 records.

NOAA’s Deep-Sea Coral Research and Technology Program (DSCRTP) compiles a national database of the known locations of deep-sea corals and sponges in U.S. territorial waters and beyond. Demersal and benthic fish occurrences that were recorded along with coral and sponge surveys are also included. The database is comprehensive, standardized, quality controlled, and networked to outside resources. The database schema accommodates both linear (trawls, transects) and point (samples, observations) data. The structure of the database is tailored to occurrence records of all the azooxanthellate corals, a subset of all corals, and all sponge species. Records shallower than 50 m are generally excluded in order to focus on predominantly deep-water species – the mandate of the DSCRTP. The intention is to limit the overlap with light-dependent (and mostly shallow-water) corals. The database version included in the current accession is 20230620-0.

This dataset contains oceanographic data (ADCP, CTD, underway), submersible data, images, and documentation. The cruise focused on several seep sites, canyons, and hard bottom features located less than 100 nm offshore. The goal of this expedition was to validate several seep targets, image and map seeps, canyons (e.g., Keller, Pamlico, Hatteras, and unnamed canyons), and hard bottom features located between Virginia and Georgia.

This dataset contains oceanographic data (ADCP Lander, Chemical, CTD, ROV, SCS), biological images and videos, and documentation. This project involves a comprehensive multidisciplinary study to explore and characterize two deep coral habitats with contrasting benthic communities on the west Florida slope of the Gulf of Mexico, including the testing of newly developed sensors deployed on an ROV to map and fully resolve the carbonate system at the sites.

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Building off the successes of an Office of Ocean Exploration (OE) expedition to Davidson Seamount in 2002, this project will focus on deep-water corals. The week-long expedition in 2002 was the initial effort to characterize the biology and geology of the Davidson Seamount, 1,250 - 3,700 meters deep off Central California. Many results and products from this cruise are relevant to OE, including ocean science issues, education, outreach, and resource management. The focus of the proposed 2005 cruise would be to expand on the exploratory results of our last seamount expedition to investigate processes that generated coral distribution patterns. We will use a simple model derived from results of the last cruise to test our understanding of coral distribution, and use this model to guide exploration in other regions of the Seamount (still over 99.98% unexplored.) Specific regions of the seamount will be targeted based on a topographic index, substratum type, and coral species depth records. Complementary studies of the biodiversity and population dynamics of seamount fauna will include collections of corals for taxonomic studies, and age and growth studies of corals using innovative radiometric techniques. Addressing the public interest in seamounts, corals, and exploration, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) will record imagery from Davidson Seamount to feature in an upcoming television series, co-produced with the Discovery Channel, for broadcast in the United States and internationally. The Sanctuary West Coast Visitor Center and Monterey Bay Aquarium have plans to feature seamounts and corals in future exhibits, and high-definition video imagery, as well as research findings will be pivotal in the exhibit development.

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