European Ocean Biodiversity Information System

Black coral occurrences are considered indicative of the presence of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems according to the International Guidelines for the Management of Deep-Sea Fisheries in the High Seas (FAO, 2009). Furthermore, their international trade is regulated under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species because of concerns about the effects of black coral extraction on the fragile habitats they form. Dense stands of Antipathes wollastoni, Tanacetipathes sp., Antipathes furcata and Antipathella subpinnata have been observed on the Azores shelves but knowledge on their distribution and the assemblages they form is scarce. This dataset compiles black coral occurrences from sublittoral surveys conducted across the Azores archipelago (NE Atlantic) between 1991 and 2019. Sampling concentrated on island shelf and margin settings and was conducted using a variety of platforms: (i) two small remote operated vehicles (a VideoRay Explorer micro-ROV and a SeaBotix LBV300S-6 mini-ROV); (ii) two custom-made drop-down cameras built from Tritech MD4000, GoPro Hero3+ and GitUp Git 2 cameras; and (iii) SCUBA diving using both conventional and closed-circuit systems. The compilation comprises 2353 presences and absences identified at depths ranging between 3m and 264 m. Acknowledgements: To the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology for grants and individual contracts awarded to Fernando Tempera (refs: SFRH/BD/12885/2003, SFRH/BPD/79801/2011), V. de Matos (SFRH/BD/86390/2012) and P. Afonso (IF/01640/2015) and Okeanos Strategic Program. To projects MARÉ (Life-Nature B4-3200/98/509), OGAMP (INTERREG IIIb— MAC/4.2/A2 2001), MARMAC (INTERREG IIIb—03/MAC/4.2/A2 2004), POOC São Miguel – Costa Norte, CoralFish (EC-FP7ENV/2007/1/213144), CORAZON (FCT/PTDC/MAR/72169/2006), MARFOR (EC-BIODIVERSA/004/2015), PLATMAR (FCT/PTDC/GEO-GEO/0051/2014) and Mission Atlantic (EC H2020-LC-BG-08-2018) for funding surveys throughout the archipelago and work by F. Tempera, J.N. Gomes Pereira, V. de Matos and D. Milla i Figueras. To the Azores Regional Government for funding the projects MoniZec, BALA, MoniZec-ARP and MONICO via the Regional Foundation for Science & Technology (DRCT/FRCT) and the Regional Directorate for Maritime Affairs (DRAM).