First visual occurrence data for deep-sea cnidarians in the South-western Colombian Caribbean

By

Dueñas, Luisa
Cedeño-Posso, Cristina
Grajales, Alejandro
Herrera, Santiago
Rodríguez, Estefanía
Sánchez, Juan
Leon, Jorge
Puentes, Vladimir

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2019-05-07

Original Publication

Biodiversity data journal

Volume

7

Pages

1--18

Subjects

benthic , Biodiversity , DwC-A , marine , Remote Operated Vehicle-ROV , soft bottom , Tow Camera

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft Publishers [2013]-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e33091
eLocator: e33091

 

Abstract

Attention to the deep-sea environment has increased dramatically in the last decade due to the rising interest in natural resource exploitation. Although Colombia holds a large submerged territory, knowledge of the seabed and its biodiversity beyond 1,000 m depth is very limited. During 2015–2017, Anadarko Colombia Company (ACC) carried out hydrocarbon exploratory activities in the South-western Colombian Caribbean, at depths between 375 m and 2,565 m.<br> Capitalising on available data resources from these activities, several cnidarian species were observed in ROV and towed camera surveys. We analysed over nine hours of video and 5,066 still images from these surveys, identifying organisms to the lowest possible taxonomic level. The images and associated data presented here correspond to 108 observations of deep-sea cnidarians, including seven new records for the Colombian Caribbean. Given the paucity of research and funding to explore the deep-sea in Colombia, the present dataset comprises the largest deep-sea Cnidaria imagery inventory to date for the Colombian Caribbean.