Deep-sea corals and sponges provide valuable habitat, and have progressively gained protection in U.S. waters since the 1980s. NOAA’s Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program maintains a national database to inform exploration and resource management. Recently a regional GIS geodatabase for the Southeast U.S. has been created to display known coral and sponge locations, ROV dive tracks, seafloor maps, habitat suitability models, and managed area boundaries.
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