Andreia Braga-Henriques

Deep-water longline fishing has reduced impact on Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems

Bottom trawl fishing threatens deep-sea ecosystems, modifying the seafloor morphology and its physical properties, with dramatic consequences on benthic communities. Therefore, the future of deep-sea fishing relies on alternative techniques that maintain the health of deep-sea ecosystems and tolerate appropriate human uses of the marine environment. In this study, we demonstrate that deep-sea bottom longline fishing has little impact on vulnerable marine ecosystems, reducing bycatch of cold-water corals and limiting additional damage to benthic communities. We found that slow-growing vulnerable species are still common in areas subject to more than 20 years of longlining activity and estimate that one deep-sea bottom trawl will have a similar impact to 296–1,719 longlines, depending on the morphological complexity of the impacted species. Given the pronounced differences in the magnitude of disturbances coupled with its selectivity and low fuel consumption, we suggest that regulated deep-sea longlining can be an alternative to deep-sea bottom trawling.

Carrying behavior in the deep-sea crab Paromola cuvieri (Northeast Atlantic)

Observations of deep-sea homolids are becoming more common, but good-resolution imagery of these crabs in the natural environment is still scarce. Sixteen new in situ observations of Paromola cuvieri from various locations within the central and eastern groups of the Azores Archipelago (Northeast Atlantic) are described here based on video footage collected by two submersible vehicles. Crabs were found on coral gardens and deep-sea sponge aggregations, which are priority habitats of conservation importance under OSPARCOM. Diverse sessile megafauna were recorded (>59 taxa), including sponges, hydroids, corals, brachiopods, crinoids and oysters. Overall, 75% of the crabs were carrying live specimens of sessile invertebrates, mainly sponges and cold-water corals. Object selection shows to be a more complex process than previously thought, in which factors such as morphology, size and weight of objects and also palatability seem to be more important in the process of object selection than their availability.

An Eguchipsammia (Dendrophylliidae) topping on the cone

A reef formed by corals of the azooxanthellate scleractinian genus EguchipsammiaCairns, 1994 (Dendrophylliidae), identified following the morphological descriptions by Zibrowius (1980) and Cairns (2000), was discovered in July 2013 off the Faial-Pico Channel (Azores, Northeast Atlantic). This is the first record of such an extensive living Eguchipsammia framework and the first major discovery by the RebikoffNiggeler Foundation with its recently-inaugurated manned submersible Lula 1000. The recently located reef was found at 280–300 m depth, on the very top of a partially collapsed and rejuvenated volcanic cone (Fig. 1a). This dense framework covers an estimated 1,000 m, with the living bright yellow polyps standing out from the dead skeletons (Fig. 1b–d). The underlying substrate is partially visible, suggesting that the reef is less than 1 m thick. The distribution range of the genus Eguchipsammia in the Atlantic Ocean previously included multiple localities in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, at depths between 9 and 300 m, and southwestern Europe, from the Coral Patch Seamount to the Celtic Sea at depths ranging between 330 to 960 m (Cairns 2000; Wienberg et al. 2013). The present record attests the presence of the genus in the central North Atlantic, filling the gap within its amphi-Atlantic distribution

New species of Heteropathes (Anthozoa: Antipatharia) expands genus distribution to the NE Atlantic

Heteropathes opreski, a new antipatharian species from the northern border of the Oceanographer Fracture Zone is here described and illustrated. An emended diagnosis of the genus and a dichotomous key containing the four Heteropathes species are presented. This species is unique in that it forms smaller colonies compared to the other species in the genus, with some of the lateral pinnules presenting a small ramified subpinnule. Additionally, the polypar spines found on the lateral pinnules are the highest so far recorded in the genus. This record greatly expands the known distribution of this genus, as it was not previously reported to occur in the Northeastern Atlantic.