September 10, 2014 — Long known as a place rich in seafood, the Gulf of Maine also is home to “spectacular” formations of deep sea corals, scientists have discovered.
Researchers using a remotely controlled submersible vehicle this summer found “dense hanging gardens” of coral in the Schoodic Ridges region of the gulf, southeast of Mount Desert Island. The formations covered vertical walls about 25 to 40 feet high that were found about 200 feet below the water’s surface, Northeast Fisheries Science Center officials indicated in a prepared statement released last week.
“Few people realize that the Gulf of Maine is home to many beautiful deep-sea corals, about which we know so little,” Dave Packer, a marine ecologist at the federal fisheries science center’s Howard Laboratory at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, said in the release. Packer was co-chief scientist on a 15-day scientific cruise in July and August of the gulf that included researchers from the University of Maine and the University of Connecticut.
“Off the Northeast U.S., the very deep submarine canyons and seamounts far out along the edge of the continental shelf exhibit a high biodiversity of deep-sea corals, some of which may be hundreds if not thousands of years old,” Packer said. “Seeing high densities of several of these species in relatively shallow waters close to shore is amazing. The hanging gardens were spectacular!”
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News