U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service Gulf of Mexico OCS Region

The Deep Sea Gulf of Mexico: An Overview and Guide

OCS Study MMS 2001-065

The Minerals Management Service (MMS), Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, announces the availability of a new study report, The Deep Sea Gulf of Mexico: An Overview and Guide.

This report presents a nontechnical summary of a major research effort that studied the deepwater habitats of the Gulf of Mexico between 1983 to 1987. Geographically, the study extended from the Eastern to the Western Gulf and focused on habitats between approximately 300 and 3000 meters deep. The study employed standard methodologies to measure water chemistry from the surface to the bottom, box cores to take mud samples and biota from the bottom, trawls to capture larger animals living on and above the bottom, and a deep-sea camera system that obtained approximately 48,000 photographs of the bottom and associated animals living there. Towards the end of the study, additional sampling was conducted by using a manned submersible to investigate chemosynthetic communities in the Central Gulf for the first time. This publication presents a nontechnical summary of the data and a wide range of color images representing not only the typical mud bottom but also a variety of the unusual animals large enough to be seen in photographs. A CD-ROM that includes numerous additional digital images with collection data and identification of animals accompanies each report. The goal of the publication is to provide a clear image and understanding of what the deep Gulf really looks like and a description of the major environmental factors that govern the shape and look of these habitats.

For more information about this study or the Environmental Studies Program in general, contact the Environmental Sciences Section (MS 5430), 1201 Elmwood Park Boulevard, New Orleans, Louisiana 70123-2394, telephone (504) 736-2752.

You can obtain copies of the report from the Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, at a charge of $10.00 by referencing OCS Study MMS 2001-065. You will be able to obtain this report also from the National Technical Information Service in the near future. Here are the addresses. You may also inspect copies at selected Federal Depository Libraries.

MMS is the federal agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the nation's oil, natural gas and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf in federal offshore waters. The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses mineral revenues from federal and Indian leases. These collections totaled nearly $8 billion last year and more than $110 billion since the agency was created in 1982. Annually, nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the acquisition and development of state and federal park and recreation lands.

-MMS-GOM-
MMS's Website Address: http://www.mms.gov

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