Scientists to Study Gulf of Maine Deep-Sea Corals

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) _ A team of American and Canadian scientists is about to depart on a two-week study of deep-sea corals in the canyons in the northern Gulf of Maine.
 
    Martha Nizinski of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast Fisheries Science Center and Anna Metaxas of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, will lead the scientists. They depart Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on Wednesday aboard the NOAA ship Henry B. Bigelow and return to Newport, Rhode Island, on July 1.
 
    The scientists will survey and investigate known or suspected deep-sea coral habitats off the coast of the northeastern United States and Canada to assess abundance, distribution and size. The cruise will continue work that began in 2012. The program is funded by NOAA's Deep-Sea Coral Research and Technology program.