NOAAs Undersea Research Center for the Southeast and Gulf
of Mexico (SEGM) conducts undersea research in a region that includes:
4,400 km of coastline; 1.2 million square km of U.S. Exclusive Economic
Zone; 60 percent of the nations wetlands and estuarine drainage
area; the nations most valuable developed oil and gas resources;
most valuable recreational fishing and marine-related tourism industries;
second most valuable commercial fishing industry; and the only emergent,
living coral reef ecosystems in the continental U.S.
SEGMs Florida Keys Research Program is a global leader in
coral research, supporting over 5000 reef dives per year in the
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS). The Aquarius undersea
lab, situated 3 miles off Key Largo, is the worlds only offshore
inner space station, housing 6 aquanauts for weeks per
mission, and sending real-time video and data to the Internet for
research, education, and outreach projects.
Highlights
- Provided research to support continuation of ban on bottom fishing
and trawling in a portion of the Oculina Banks, to ensure protection
of the worlds only known deepwater stand of ivory tree coral
- Documented invasion of South Pacific lionfish, a venomous predatory
fish that has invaded southeast waters, taking over reefs from
Florida to North Carolina and Bermuda
- Discovered oil and gas cold seeps and gas hydrates at the Gulf
of Mexico seafloor; methane hydrates are the worlds largest
potential fossil fuel reservoir and alleged factor in abrupt climate
change
- Recovered and preserved artifacts from the disintegrating wreck
of the USS Monitor , which lies at 263 ft depth off Cape Hatteras
in the nations first national marine sanctuary
- Determined causes and impacts of low-oxygen events on coastal
ecosystem in dead zone off the Mississippi River delta
- Mapped habitat and assessed fish populations in existing and
proposed deep-water shelf edge reefs
and deep coral banks
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