Towards a scientific community consensus on designating Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems from imagery.

Management of deep-sea fisheries in areas beyond national jurisdiction by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations/Arrangements (RFMO/As) requires identification of areas with Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs). Currently, fisheries data, including trawl and longline bycatch data, are used by many RFMO/As to inform the identification of VMEs. However, the collection of such data creates impacts and there is a need to collect non-invasive data for VME identification and monitoring purposes.

(Ceriantharia: Anthozoa: Cnidaria): New Status and New Perspectives.

Subclass Ceriantharia is a well-defined and probably ancient group of marine benthic organisms renowned for their bilateral symmetry, which is reflected in the arrangement of tentacles and mesenteries. Four species of Ceriantharia have been reported in the Arctic, including Gosse, 1859, also known from the Northern Atlantic and Northern Pacific. The integrity of this species was questioned in the literature, so we performed a molecular study of from several geographically distant locations using 18S and COI genes.

Five new species of black coral (Anthozoa; Antipatharia) from the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, Australia.

We describe five new species of black corals from the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, collected at depths ranging from 14 to 789 m: two in the family Antipathidae (Antipathes falkorae sp. nov. and Antipathes morrisi sp.

Description of a new and widely distributed species of (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Antipatharia: Schizopathidae) previously misidentified as Brook, 1889.

For many years an undescribed species of the genus has been misidentified as Brook, 1889 (a species currently re-assigned to the genus ). This new species is rather common at mid- and lower bathyal depths of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, often in areas with high concentrations of commercially valuable cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts, where it was observed in underwater photo and video transects to occur in high densities. Under the name this species is recorded in several inventories and databases.

New species of deep-sea Antipatharians from the North Pacific (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Antipatharia), Part 2.

Five new species of deep-sea antipatharian corals are described from the North Pacific primarily collected off the coast of Alaska and on adjacent seamounts. All the species are referred to the family Schizopathidae. Described as new are: Alternatipathes mirabilis, Bathypathes ptiloides, Bathypathes tiburonae, Bathypathes alaskensis, and Parantipathes pluma.

Deep-Sea Misconceptions Cause Underestimation of Seabed-Mining Impacts.

Scientific misconceptions are likely leading to miscalculations of the environmental impacts of deep-seabed mining. These result from underestimating mining footprints relative to habitats targeted and poor understanding of the sensitivity, biodiversity, and dynamics of deep-sea ecosystems. Addressing these misconceptions and knowledge gaps is needed for effective management of deep-seabed mining.

Trissopathes (Anthozoa: Antipatharia) in the north-east Atlantic, with a description of T. grasshoffi sp. nov.

A new species of antipatharian (black coral) in the genus Trissopathes is described. It is common in the bathyal zone of the north-east Atlantic, including the Bay of Biscay, Celtic Slope and adjacent banks and seamounts. The species is often observed in underwater photographs from untrawled parts of carbonate mounds in the area.

Revision of the coral-inhabiting genus Conopea (Cirripedia: Archaeobalanidae) with description of two new species of the genera Conopea and Acasta.

The morphology of archaeobalanid barnacles of the genera Conopea and Acasta inhabiting cnidarians of the orders Alcyonacea and Antipatharia was surveyed. Based on morphological characteristics, it became evident that the species of the nominal genus Conopea fell into three natural groups affiliated to three archaeobalanid genera, Conopea s.s.

The magnitude of global marine species diversity.

Background: The question of how many marine species exist is important because it provides a metric for how much we do and do not know about life in the oceans. We have compiled the first register of the marine species of the world and used this baseline to estimate how many more species, partitioned among all major eukaryotic groups, may be discovered.

Results: There are ∼226,000 eukaryotic marine species described.