Sustainable Seas Expedition Points along Tracks: Years 2000 and 2001

Pulley Ridge is a series of drowned barrier islands that extends almost 200 km in 60-100 m water depths. This drowned ridge is located on the Florida Platform in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico about 250 km west of Cape Sable, Florida. This barrier island chain formed during the initial stage of the Holocene marine transgression. These islands were then submerged and left abandoned near the outer edge of the Florida Platform. The southern portion of Pulley Ridge hosts zooxanthellate scleractinian corals, green, red and brown macro algae, and a mix of deep and typically shallow-water tropical fishes. This reef community is in unusually deep water, and its extent and the controls on its distribution were unknown. To address these questions scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program in cooperation with scientists from the University of South Florida Department of Marine Sciences have completed a detailed mapping of the southernmost 35 km of Pulley Ridge. The area was mapped using multibeam bathymetry, sidescan-sonar imagery, and high-resolution seismic-reflection profiling to define the geologic framework on which the reef is established. Submersible dives, remotely operated vehicle (ROV) transects, and transects of bottom photographs and video were collected to identify the corals and to map their distribution. This extensive suite of data has been compiled and preliminary analysis of the data suggests that the reefs are not tied to the ridge system, but instead are more broadly distributed. Whether reef distribution is controlled by oceanographic conditions or by subtle differences in the substrate that overlies the barrier island system is unclear, and are topics of continued research.