October 19, 2020 — The federal government has approved new protections for 500 square miles of deep-sea coral habitat in the Gulf of Mexico.
The protected areas are scattered across 13 reef and canyon sites from Texas to the Florida Keys that support an abundance of sea life, including snapper, grouper and other fish favored by commercial and recreational fishers.
The rules, approved Thursday (Oct. 15) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, prohibit fishing with bottom tending nets and other gear, which can rip apart corals that have lived for hundreds of years.
The environmental group Oceana has pushed for the protections for some 20 years.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” said Gib Brogan, an Oceana campaign manager. “It’s like Christmas in October.”
Deep-sea corals, like their shallow and warm-water cousins, are actually colonies of small animals that build a common skeleton. But unlike tropical reef corals, deep-sea varieties live in cold, dark depths of up to 10,000 feet. Deep-sea corals form into tree, feather and fan shapes that host a variety of other species, including shrimp, crab and fish.