Report | octubre 29, 2013

Importance of seamount-like features for conserving mediterranean marine habitats and threatened species

16 of the more than 200 seamount-like peaks in the Mediterranean1 have been observed using ROV.

The findings, which include carnivorous sponges, elasmobranches, coral gardens, sponge aggregations, coralligenous beds, as well as species new to science like the giant foraminifera Spiculosiphon oceana, or new to the Mediterranean, like the scleractinian Anomocora fecunda, underscore the importance of these geological features as hotspots and shelters/refuges species and habitats that are threatened, in regression, or rare in other Mediterranean areas.