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USGS Cosponsors Third International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals
The Third International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals was held November 28-December 3, 2005, in Miami, Fla. attracting more than 250 participants from 27 countries. About 40 percent of the attendees were from outside the United States. The symposium was sponsored by several U.S. agencies and institutions, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the Minerals Management Service (MMS). Kathy Scanlon (USGS) and Anthony Grehan (National University of Ireland) were co-conveners for a double session on Habitat Mapping, Sampling, and Characterization. Ken Sulak (USGS) and Tony Koslow (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [CSIRO], Australia) convened a session on Fish Ecology. Deep-sea corals include both "hard" (for example, scleractinian) and "soft" (for example, gorgonian) corals that live without the benefit of the symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) that the more familiar tropical corals depend on. Because they don't rely on zooxanthellae, deep-sea corals can live in cold and dark waters. During the last decade, scientists have advanced our understanding of these animals tremendously. They are now known to occur as individual colonies and as large reef communities in a wide variety of environments in all the oceans of the world. Presentations at the symposium addressed a wide range of topics, including the use of fossil coral skeletons as recorders of paleoclimate, the potential of deep-sea corals as pharmaceuticals, their value as habitat for other organisms, threats to their survival, and efforts to protect them. Protection of deep-sea corals is particularly difficult because many live in areas outside the jurisdiction of any nation, in international waters.
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in this issue:
special feature: Offshore Impacts of Hurricane Katrina Sediment-Toxicity Studies in Western Long Island Sound Sea-Floor Geology Off Massachusetts Coast Alvin Dives to Deep-Water Coral Habitats Study Links Urbanization to Amphibian Decline San Francisco Bay Floor Explored Briefing on Coastal Research in Hawai'i USGS Research on the Kona Coast, Hawai'i Third International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals Award for USGS Map Hawaii's Volcanoes Revealed USGS Citizen Soldier on the Move! Native-Plant Landscaping in Florida |