A team of researchers from NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center University of Hawaii Manoa Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Bishop Museum has returned from a successful six-day expedition aboard the University s research vessel R V Ka imikai-o-Kanaloa The expedition included a total of six dives using the deep diving submersible Pisces V and dives using the RCV- remote operated vehicle both operated by the University s Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory HURL This three year multi-institutional project is funded by two separate NOAA grants million from NOAA s Coral Reef Ecosystem Studies CRES and from NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program CRCP administered through HURL and seeks to characterize the nature of mesophotic low light coral reef ecosystems which occur at depths of to more than meters feet off Maui Discovery of these deep reefs is relatively recent in large part because they occur at depths below what can safely be accessed using conventional SCUBA Although certain kinds of organisms such ... read more