Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities Restoration

Join us for a public webinar on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, to discuss restoration efforts underway for the Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities (MDBC) projects. This webinar will share updates from the 2025 field season, discuss ongoing restoration plans for 2026, and present how experts will be synthesizing previously-collected data and samples to refine and implement effective restoration strategies for the Gulf. Background: In 2019, the Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group for the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment Restoration Program finalized the Open Ocean Restoration Plan 2, which included 4 MDBC restoration projects. The goals of the MDBC projects are to: 
 – Improve understanding of MDBC to inform management and ensure resiliency
 – Restore abundance and biomass of MDBC invertebrates and fish with a focus on high-density coral sites
 – Actively manage valuable MDBC to protect against multiple threats
 – Provide a framework for monitoring, education, and outreach. Implementation of the projects, which began in 2022, represents a substantial effort by multiple U.S. government agencies, academic and scientific institutions, and non-governmental organizations to achieve the MDBC restoration goals. The University of Rhode Island Inner Space Center is providing technical support for the webinar, if you have questions with registration please contact [email protected]. You will get a registration confirmation from this email address.

Please register here: Webinar Registration – Zoom

Please use the following AT Code: AT: Online Training: TMN AT Report hours