The Gulf of Mexico is home to deep-sea animals usually associated with geological features in the major ocean basins, a finding by scientists contracting with the MMS. http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/regulate/environ/chemo/chemo.html
This ecosystem is the subject of two major field studies known as "Chemosynthetic Ecosystem Study" and "Stability and Change in Gulf of Mexico Chemosynthetic Communities." The first comprehensive field study of the deep sea in the Gulf of Mexico (the "Northern Gulf of Mexico Continental Slope Study") concentrated on the geologic features, water masses, chemistry, and biological communities of the northern Gulf from depths of 300 meters down to the abyss. These greater depths, in the area known as the continental slope (as opposed to the shelf), extend from water depths of about 200 meters, at the "shelf-slope break", into thousands of meters of water. The second general study, known as the Northern Gulf of Mexico Continental Slope Habitats and Benthic Ecology Study was begun in 2000.
An updated presenttion on MMS activity, hosted by Texas A&M University will be given October 2, 2008 at the RPSEA Ultra Deep Water Environmental Forum in Galveston, Texas. http://www.rpsea.org
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