New Regulations Protect Deep-Water Corals

Coral reefs are among the most diverse ecosystems on earth. Healthy coral reef ecosystems support fisheries and recreational activities across the world. Deep-water coral reefs found in light-limited environments deeper than 164 feet (27 fathoms) are different from the typical shallow coral reefs you might be familiar with. They can live to be hundreds, if not thousands, of years old and provide important habitat to many fishes and invertebrates in a part of the ocean that is cold, dark, and low in oxygen. 

This week, new regulations go in place to protect some of the most precious deep-water corals in the Gulf of Mexico. Coral Amendment 9 established 13 new habitat areas of particular concern with fishing regulations and designated 8 new habitat areas of particular concern without fishing regulations. The particular areas protected by Coral Amendment 9 were chosen because they serve an important ecological function, are sensitive to human induced degradation, the habitat is stressed, or they’re rare. 

You’re probably wondering how these new coral protections might affect you. Most of the areas are extremely deep and fishing activity is sparse, so it shouldn’t impact most fishermen too much, although bottom anchoring by any fishing vessel is prohibited in the areas. The regulations only limit the deployment of bottom-tending gear, including bottom longline, bottom trawl, buoy gear, dredge, pot, or trap, so this almost exclusively limits commercial fishing activity. 

If you’re interested in exploring the new areas, this map will show you the locations of these new protected areas. Additionally, the new areas with regulations can be found on the Management Areas tab of our Federal Fishing Regulations. 

As always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns regarding these new coral protections. 

Maps, Management Tools, and Educational Resources

Photo: G.P. Schmal FGBNMS

Have you ever scoured the internet in search of new fishing spots? Tried to figure out where you can or can’t fish? Do you ever research a particular species or habitat in the Gulf of Mexico? Do you wonder about the information and decision-making process behind fishing regulations? If so, we’re delighted to share a resource that may help you find all of those things in one place.

The Gulf Council has recently remodeled its Coral Portal, a website that houses a range of interactive maps, tools for making management decisions, and educational resources. Development of the site is funded by the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, and the project aims to share environmental information associated with corals and fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico with folks who use the Gulf for business, recreation, and research.

Click here to visit the coral portal: http://portal.gulfcouncil.org

Resources on the Portal are organized in three different categories:

Map

Coral Viewer

This suite of interactive maps allows you to explore management areas and different known habitats in the Gulf of Mexico. To highlight a few, the Fishery Management Areas Map shows jurisdictional boundaries and areas in the Gulf with fishing restrictions. The Spiny Lobster Closed Area map highlights the areas off the Florida Keys where lobster traps are prohibited to protect threated staghorn and elkhorn corals. There are also a number of maps devoted specifically to coral including: The Coral Viewer which shows known coral areas in the Gulf, the Coral HAPC Explorer which shows the locations of current and recommended coral Habitat Areas of Particular Concern, and the Predictive Modeling of Deep-Sea Coral Habitat Map which uses factors like depth, bottom shape, and salinity, to predict where deep water corals may exist.

Manage

Proposed HAPC's in Coral Amendment 9 

This section of the Portal focuses on tools that highlight management issues being considered by the Gulf Council. Currently, you’ll find a summary of the 5-year review of Essential Fish Habitat that was recently completed, including profiles of federally managed species and their habitat associations. You’ll also find a management tool that will help to inform you about Coral Amendment 9 – which considers establishing new deep-water coral protections in the Gulf. You can analyze management actions being considered by the Gulf Council using the map tool that highlights potential Habitat Areas of Particular Concern. This section of the Coral Portal will be updated as new management measures are considered.

Discover

Lionfish Storyboard

Here you’ll find a variety of different resources designed to enhance your understanding of corals, habitats, and the species linked to them. There are interactive articles on topics like lionfish, goliath, and coral management. Additionally, you’ll find a link to the Portal blog which is jam packed with posts on different habitats. Finally, you’ll find clickable posters that display creatures and habitats of the deep Gulf of Mexico.

New material is added frequently, so check back in to see what we’ve been working on.

As you explore the resources on the updated Coral Portal please let us know what you think. We would love to hear what’s working (or not) and what other tools you may find useful. Contact us at portal@gulfcouncil.org with questions, comments, and suggestions.

Gulf Council Publishes Known Coral Locations in Gulf

Photo: sonarnavigator.net

As an offshore fisherman, you’ve probably spent a good bit of time on the water staring at your bottom machine in search of new fishing grounds. When the screen lights up with ripples or spikes you know the spot could be holding some awesome fish. And, if you’re anything like me, you wonder “what’s actually down there?”

As a diver, you might have the opportunity to see for yourself, or you can drop a camera overboard to get a better look. Chances are you’ll find some kind of reef. It might be artificial, it might be rocky, or it might be a coral reef. No matter what, you probably already associate reef structure with fish.

Photo: Sea Grant

Coral reefs are a crucial foundation for many of the marine species living in the Gulf of Mexico. They provide food, shelter, and nursery grounds to a seemingly endless list of fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and other inhabitants of all shapes and sizes. Many of the fish we target as commercial or recreational fishermen spend some part of their life on a reef feeding, growing, or seeking shelter – that’s why these habitats are so important.

Unfortunately, coral reefs, their health, and abundance, are threatened by many things including; oil spills, ocean acidification, climate change, and rising ocean temperatures.  Advances in technology such as satellite imagery and remote sensors that monitory the ever-changing ocean environment have allowed scientists to better understand the factors threatening coral reefs. Knowing the location of known coral communities allows for better management against the array of threats posed on corals.  

The coral web mapper created by the Gulf Council allows users to explore the different corals across the Gulf of Mexico. This database will allow scientists, managers, and the public, to interact with coral reef locations to make protecting them and understanding their risk much easier so potentially harmful factors can be managed before coral communities are endangered.

The five categories of corals/organisms that are depicted on the map tool are:

Photo: NOAA

• Black Coral (or Antipatharians) – a group of branching corals are often associated with deep reef habits. Although their exterior flesh is usually red, white, or orange, their internal skeleton is black. Black corals can live to for thousands of years. In fact, one from the Gulf of Mexico was aged to be more than 2000 years old. These corals are a valuable tool for scientists because their skeletons contain rings, like trees. The rings have chemical signatures that allow scientists to learn about past oceanic environments. Black corals have also been harvested for jewelry, a practice which is not sustainable.

• Hydrozoan Coral – colonies of individual animals that form a very rigid soft coral. Fire coral and lace coral are some of the best known colonies of hydrozoan. Hydrozoans have very interesting lives with two different life stages and two different strategies for reproduction. Hydrozoan coral colonies are made up of animals in the polyp stage of life when the animal is attached to a hard surface. Hydrozoan polyps reproduce by releasing buds that become free-swimming organisms. The free swimming hydrozoans are in the medusa state of life. They look very different from their stationary parents and reproduce sexually to form new polyps and begin the cycle again.

Photo: Sea Grant

• Octocoral (or Anthozoans) – non reef-building soft corals. Octocorals can take on many different shapes, sizes, and colors but are easily identified in any form because they all have eight-fold symmetry. These corals are very hardy and can be some of the easiest corals to grow in aquariums.

• Stony coral (or Scleractinians) –hard corals that are the primary reef building corals of the world. These corals have skeletons made of calcium carbonate (Aragonite), covered with polyps. All stony corals have a symbiotic relationship with algae that lives inside the polyps. The algae, called zooxanthellae, produce oxygen and other nutrients that are used by the polyps; the polyps produce carbon dioxide that is used by the algae. Brain corals and elkhorn corals are some of the more well known stony corals.

• Sea Anemones –predatory animals are attached to the seafloor. They feed using tentacles that inject prey with paralyzing neurotoxins and then guide animals into their mouth for digestion. Like stony corals, some anemones have symbiotic relationships with algae that provide sugar and oxygen in exchange for shelter and exposure to the sun. Other anemones have mutualistic relationships with fish that live in their tentacles to escape predation from other fish.

Check out the map tool to explore this comprehensive inventory of known coral locations in the Gulf of Mexico.  Click on each spot for more information on the depth and coral type so you can get more familiar with the types of coral habitats that are common near your fishing grounds.

Rig Removal - Essential Fish Habitat

Photo: Mike Miglini

Rig Removal - Essential Fish Habitat

Artificial reefs and their link to the Gulf fisheries has been a hot topic for the past few years. Scientists debate whether artificial reefs increase fish populations by expanding habitat opportunity or simply attract fish from other, less desirable habitat. It’s been difficult to determine which viewpoint is correct because artificial reef structures only account for about 1% of all hard bottom habitat in the Gulf. In either case, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council is concerned about the method and rate of oil and gas platform removal because the structures define the way people fish in some parts of the Gulf.

In recent years, the installation of new gas and oil structures has slowed. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Interior created the Idle Iron policy which requires all oil and gas structures to be removed no longer than a year after production is finished. Fishermen and conservation groups are concerned that the demolition and removal of rigs will harm our fisheries. Unfortunately, the Gulf Council has no authority to control the removal of rigs in the Gulf, which are under control of the Department of Interior. The Council has sent a series of letters asking the agencies responsible for rig removal to reconsider the use of explosives to remove rigs because explosives are known to kill fish dwelling near those structures. The Council has also asked that the rate of rig removal be  slowed or discontinued until more information is gathered regarding the effects of structure removal on the fishery.  The letters can be viewed here.

Photo: Mike Jennings

Many stakeholders have asked the Council to address the issue of rig removal by designating artificial structures Essential Fish Habitat. The map below shows the area (pink) of the Gulf that is currently considered Essential Fish Habitat. The red dots mark all known artificial reef structures in the gulf (approximately 5,127 acres). Although the artificial reefs themselves are not designated as Essential Fish Habitat, a vast majority of artificial structures (5,031 acres) fall within the area already designated as Essential Fish Habitat.  Currently, there are only 98 acres of artificial reef structure located outside the designated Essential Fish Habitat.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council is developing a document that will  consider designating artificial reefs (structures intentionally placed as reefs and structures such as oil and gas platforms that are intended for other purposes but do provide fish habitat) as Essential Fish Habitat.  The designation of Essential Fish Habitat does not give the Council regulatory authority over those areas, but it does require other federal agencies (including the groups responsible for rig removal rates and methods) to consult with NOAA Fisheries on actions that will effect the Essential Fish Habitat.  The recommendations that NOAA fisheries makes to the agencies proposing action in Essential Fish Habitat are non-binding and serve an advisory role only.

While the designation of Essential Fish Habitat mandates the Council minimize the negative consequences fishing may have on the habitat. (Section 303(a)(7) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act), it is not the Councils intent to limit fishing on artificial reefs if they are designated Essential Fish Habitat.

The Council plans to discuss an amendment that considers designating artificial reefs as Essential Fish Habitat at the next meeting, which is scheduled for June 18 – 21 in Tampa, FL.