or collective redistirbution of any portion of this article by photocopy machine, reposting, or other means is permitted only with the approval of The approval portionthe ofwith any articlepermitted only photocopy by is of machine, reposting, this means or collective or other redistirbution This article has This been published in HERMES SPECIAL ISSUE FEATURE O ceanography , Volume 22, Number 1, a quarterly journal of The 22, Number 1, a quarterly , Volume The O WhITE CORAL ceanography S ociety. ociety. © COMMUNITY The 2009 by in the Central Mediterranean Sea O Revealed by ROV Surveys ceanography O ceanography ceanography S ociety. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to copy this article for use in teaching and research. article use for research. and this copy in teaching to granted rights All reserved. is ociety. Permission S ociety. ociety. S end all correspondence to:
[email protected] or Th e
[email protected] to: correspondence all end BY ANDRÉ FREIWALD, LYDIA BEUCK, ANDRES RÜGGEBERG, MARCO TavIanI, DIERK HEbbELN, O anD R/V METEOR CRUISE M70-1 PARTICIpantS ceanography S ociety, P ociety, O Box 1931, R epublication, systemmatic reproduction, reproduction, systemmatic epublication, R ockville, M D 20849-1931, US A. 58 Oceanography Vol.22, No.1 ABSTRACT. White coral communities consist of scleractinian corals that thrive completed by further ROV dives into the in the ocean’s bathyal depths (~ 200–4000 m). In the Atlantic Ocean, white corals are better-known Apulian deep-water reefs off Santa Maria di Leuca (Tursi et al., known to form complex, three-dimensional structures on the seabed that attract vast 2004; Taviani et al., 2005a).