NOAA CIOERT Report: Survey of the Pulley Ridge Mesophotic Reef Ecosystem. NOAA Ship Nancy Foster Florida Shelf-Edge Exploration II (FLoSEE) Cruise Leg 1-September 12-19, 2011

In September 2011, a three week research cruise was conducted by the Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research, and Technology (CIOERT) at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute-Florida Atlantic University (HBOI-FAU) in collaboration with NOAA. This CIOERT Florida Shelf-Edge Exploration II (FLoSEE) Cruise was conducted in two legs using the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster and the University of Connecticut’s (UCONN) Kraken 2 ROV. CIOERT is grateful for the funding and resources provided by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER), the NOAA Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program (DSCRTP), and the NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) in support of the research, ship time, and ROV time. This Preliminary Cruise Report is for Leg 1 of the cruise to characterizeand document the habitat, benthic and fish communities, and to assess the coral health on southern Pulley Ridge and within the Pulley Ridge Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC); these sites are in the Gulf of Mexico on the southwest Florida shelf (Fig. 1).