Abstract
The deep-sea of the Levantine Mediterranean basin is still a fairly undiscovered world. The outer insular shelf of Cyprus, a gateway to the deep realm, is not an exception, as very few deep areas in the waters surrounding this island have been explored up to now. Here we present a brief overview of the discovery of an extraordinary population of the scleractinian Dendrophyllia ramea at depths, substrate and densities which were previously unknown for this species. Our efforts in better defining the habitat of this unique and fragile coral population, along with solid evidence of alarming destruction (albeit unintentional) from fishing activity, will hopefully urge local authorities into enforcing protection/conservation measures.
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Acknowledgements
This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Félix Descalzo Gómez a great fellow of many unforgettable research cruises and a close and dear friend. We are grateful to Marzia Bo and Jordi Grinyó for their comments which help to improve the quality of the manuscript. Thanks are due to the scientific team of CYCLAMEN, the crew and HCMR-ROV team of the RV Aegaeo, and the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research in Cyprus. This work has been conducted within the CYCLAMEN project funded by the TOTAL foundation (BIO_2014_091_Juin_CS-8).
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Orejas, C. et al. (2019). 23 Corals of Aphrodite: Dendrophyllia ramea Populations of Cyprus. In: Orejas, C., Jiménez, C. (eds) Mediterranean Cold-Water Corals: Past, Present and Future. Coral Reefs of the World, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91608-8_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91608-8_23
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