A survey to characterize the principal components of benthic communities over the entire northern Gulf of Mexico, 1999 - 2002 (NCEI Accession 0002198)

Increasing exploration and exploitation of fossil hydrocarbon resources in the deep-sea prompted the Minerals Management Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior to support an investigation of the structure and function of the assemblages of organisms that live in association with the sea floor in the deep-sea.

The program, Deep Gulf of Mexico Benthos or DGoMB, is studying the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) continental slope from water depths of 300 meters on the upper continental slope out to greater than 3,000 meters water depth seaward of the base of the Sigsbee and Florida Escarpments. The study is focused on areas that are the most likely targets of future resource exploration and exploitation.