The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group is pleased to announce a public webinar on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, which will cover restoration efforts underway for the Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities (MDBC) projects in the Gulf of America (formerly the Gulf of Mexico).
The MDBC restoration team will provide updates from the four MDBC projects, which aim to advance our ability to restore mesophotic and deep-sea communities that were injured by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The projects began a 5-year implementation phase in 2022 and include a robust portfolio of field and lab work. In 2024, the MDBC team and partners spent about 200 days at sea across 14 expeditions. During the voyages critical data needed to better characterize and understand these complex habitats was collected. The data will also support resource management activities, test restoration techniques, and set the stage for continued restoration in 2025.
During the webinar, we will share updates from the 2024 field season, announce restoration plans for 2025, and discuss how experts will be synthesizing previously collected data and samples to develop and implement effective restoration strategies for the Gulf.
The webinar will begin at 11:00 a.m. CT with a presentation of project activities to date, followed by an opportunity for questions. The webinar is open to everyone, and we encourage your attendance and participation.
- Date: Tuesday, May 6, 2025
- Time: 11:00 – 12:30 p.m. CT (12:00 p.m.- 1:30 p.m. ET)
- Please register for the webinar at: https://uri-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gg7JCYNITR6uWu1vC8RmZQ#/reg…
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email from isc-media-group@uri.edu containing information about how to join. Following the webinar, we will post the webinar presentation slides and how to access the webinar recording on the Gulf Spill Restoration website. For more information about the current MDBC current projects visit:
- Habitat Assessment and Evaluation Project
- Active Management and Protection Project
- Mapping, Ground-truthing, and Predictive Habitat Modeling Project
- Coral Propagation Technique Development Project
The University of Rhode Island Inner Space Center is providing technical support for the webinar, if you have questions with registration, please contact them at isc-media-group@uri.edu. You will get a registration confirmation from this email address.
The webinar will include automatic closed captioning. If you need additional accommodations for audio or visual accessibility, please email gulfspill.restoration@noaa.gov by April 30.
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