Data collected by the R/V Gyre in the Gulf of Mexico to support the Stability and Change in the Gulf of Mexico Chemosynthetic Communities Program, 1996 - 2002 (NCEI Accession 0000788)

The program was carried out under contract with the Department of Interior, Minerals Management Service (MMS), with technical supervision of the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Regional Office, New Orleans, Louisiana. The fundamental concern of the program was the effect that development of offshore energy reserves might have upon dense assemblages of deep-sea organisms, particularly chemosynthetic tubeworms, mussels, and clams, as well as fish and crustaceans, that live in association with them.

Hydrocarbons from commercial oil and gas reserves escape into the sea bottom at natural seeps found commonly across the Gulf of Mexico's northern continental slope. Chemosynthetic animals utilize chemical energy from hydrocarbons to maintain colonies that have unusually high biomass compared with the sea bottom elsewhere. Chemosynthetic communities at hydrocarbon seeps were discovered in 1984 and have been previously investigated in studies funded by MMS.