Corner Rise Seamounts

Corner Rise Seamounts

The Corner Rise Seamounts
Location
Location North Atlantic Ocean
Coordinates 35°23′27.8″N 51°40′39.4″W / 35.391056°N 51.677611°W / 35.391056; -51.677611Coordinates: 35°23′27.8″N 51°40′39.4″W / 35.391056°N 51.677611°W / 35.391056; -51.677611

The Corner Rise Seamounts are a chain of extinct submarine volcanoes in the northern Atlantic Ocean east of the New England Seamount chain. Both it and the New England Seamount Chain were formed by the Great Meteor hotspot.[1] It is the shallowest seamount in New England, with some of its nineteen highest peaks only 800–900 m deep.[2]

Like most seamounts, they attract fish. Over 175 species have been found there,[1] including splendid alfonsino, black cardinal fish, black scabbardfish, and wreckfish.[2] Trawl fishing during the 1970s and 1980s resulted in approximately 20,000 tons of fish being harvested.[1] As a result, the seamounts were closed to demersal fishing (collecting fish near the bottom of the ocean, as opposed to pelagic fishing, collecting fish near the surface) beginning 1 January 1997. The original ban was supposed to be lifted 31 December 2010,[1] but was extended until 31 December 2020.[2] Almost a decade into the ban, a 2005 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution survey found that two of the peaks, Kükenthal and Yakutat, had been stripped bare of both corals and bottom-dwelling animals.[3][4] However the survey, which covered both the Corner Rise and New England seamounts, found 270 species of invertebrates and crustaceans, including 70 species unique to the Corner Rise Seamounts.[5]

Seamounts

Seamounts within the Corner Rise Seamount chain include:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Shank, Timothy M. (March 2010). "SPOTLIGHT 4: New England and Corner Rise Seamounts" (PDF). Oceanography. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Corner Seamounts". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  3. ↑ Kusek, Kristen M. (6 November 2007). "Coral Catastrophe on the Corner Rise Seamounts". Oceanus Magazine. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  4. ↑ Waller, Rhian & Les Watling (1 October 2007). "Anthropogenic Impacts on the Corner Rise Seamounts, North-West Atlantic Ocean". DigitalCommons @ UMaine. University of Maine. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  5. ↑ Auster, Peter J. "Linking Biodiversity in the Deep Sea to International Management Needs" (PDF). Oceans and Law of the Sea. United Nations. Retrieved 18 August 2015.

External links

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