Deep-sea sponge grounds of the Flemish Cap, Flemish Pass and the Grand Banks of Newfoundland (Northwest Atlantic Ocean): Distribution and species composition

By F. Murillo, P. Muñoz, J. Cristobo, P. Ríos, C. González, E. Kenchington, A. Serrano. 2012

110 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Distribution and species composition of deep-sea sponge grounds of the Flemish Cap, Flemish Pass and the Grand Banks of Newfoundland are described based on Spanish/EU bottom trawl groundfish surveys between 40 and 1500 m depth. Four areas with large catches of sponges and at least 30 different species have been identified in the study area. Geodia barretti, Geodia macandrewii, Geodia phlegraei, Stryphnus ponderosus and Stelletta normani are the main structural sponges and constitute more than 94% of the total invertebrate biomass of these grounds. The temperature and salinity observed over these bottoms ranged between 3.38 and 3.84°C and between 34.85 and 34.90‰, respectively. The biomass of deep-water sponges per swept area was significantly higher on lightly or untrawled bottoms than in the grounds that are regularly fished. Data from trawl groundfish surveys cannot map the deep-sea sponge grounds to a precision less than the trawl distance of 1.5 nm. Nevertheless it has been used by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), along with additional Canadian data, to implement the 61/105 United Nations General Assembly Resolution in closing six areas to bottom fishing activities to protect the sponge grounds of the NAFO Regulatory Area.

Subfields: Biotechnology, Ecology, Ocean Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6a5a174a5426d84167a80b439ac9bef53e9568d8

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In Biotechnology

1. S. Leys
2. J. Bell

In Ecology

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2. J. Bell
3. M. Maldonado
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In Ocean Engineering

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Citations in the corpus

• Sponge Grounds as Key Marine Habitats: A Synthetic Review of Types, Structure, Functional Roles, and Conservation Concerns (2016, background): “Indeed, the astrophorid grounds are biodiversity hotspots (compared to non-sponge habitats) across the northern Atlantic, where sponges can constitute about 90 % of the benthic biomass, excluding fishes (Klitgaard and Tendal 2004; Murillo et al. 2012).”
• Taxonomy, biogeography and DNA barcodes of Geodia species (Porifera, Demospongiae, Tetractinellida) in the Atlantic boreo-arctic region (2013, background): “But recent NWA records of G. barretti, G. macandrewii, and G. phlegraei were confirmed in international waters off Newfoundland, i.e. Flemish Cap, Flemish Pass, and south-eastern Grand Bank (Fuller, 2011; Murillo et al., 2012) (Fig.”
• Deep-sea sponge grounds enhance diversity and abundance of epibenthic megafauna in the Northwest Atlantic (2013, methodology): “…Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO, the Regional Fisheries Management Organization for the Northwest Atlantic), several areas that constitute sponge grounds in the NAFO Regulatory Area (NRA) have also been identified (ICES, 2009; Murillo et al., 2012) and protected through fisheries closures.”