ME70 Water Column Sonar Data Collected During HB2205

With the overall goal of surveying and investigating known or suspected deep-sea coral habitats off the coast of the northeastern US and Canada, a team of biological oceanographers, taxonomists, benthic biologists, modelers, and physical scientists will conduct a program having the following objectives: 1. Survey areas using the ROV ROPOS; with concurrent sampling of environmental factors (i.e. depth, hydrography) to characterize benthic habitats and identify areas of coral presence 2. Ground-truth areas predicted to be coral hotspots based on data provided from habitat suitability models and validate habitat suitability models 3. Assess deep-sea coral abundance, distribution, size 4. Classify coral and adjacent soft sediment habitats and document faunal affinities 5. Collect deep corals for taxonomic, reproduction, and age analyses 6. Collect deep corals and associated fauna for genetic (e.g., phylogenetic, phylogeographic, and connectivity) and isotopic composition. 7. Collect sediment cores to study sedimentary food webs. 8. Collect water samples for nutrient analyses and isotopic signatures 9. Conduct multibeam mapping in areas where data are missing or incomplete