Why are healthy seafloor environments important?
More than 40 percent of U.S. “lands,” (land plus ocean seafloor) are on the seafloor of our exclusive economic zone (three miles to 200 miles off the shore). Beneath the surface, the seafloor consists of a mosaic of habitats including smooth sand, mud, rocky ridges, deep-sea canyons, and seamounts. The incredible biodiversity of the oceans is especially concentrated around complex habitats of geologic structures (e.g., gravel, boulders, crevices, rock pinnacles, overhangs) and biogenic structures, which are created by animals such as sea anemones, sponges and deep sea coral. The marine food web and healthy marine ecosystems rely on diverse, relatively undisturbed, complex seafloor habitats.