Statement of concern for deepsea conservation

[Gaten, Dr E.]

Dear Colleagues,

I have added an announcement to the Deepsea website http://www.le.ac.uk/biology/gat/deepsea/deepsea.html concerning the "Statement of Concern to the United Nations General Assembly regarding the risks to seamounts, cold-water corals and other vulnerable ecosystems of the deep-sea". This was proposed by Hjalmar Thiel at the 10th Deep-Sea Biology Symposium held in Coos Bay Oregon. Both the original statement and an article written for the forthcoming Deep-Sea Newsletter are linked to the webpage.

I would urge all of you who are concerned about the need for conservation of deep-sea habitats to read the article and, if you agree, to contact Hjalmar Thiel to add your endorsement to this statement as soon as possible. Please circulate this message to your fellow scientists who might be interested.

Thanks, Ted Gaten

Dr E. Gaten - Department of Biology
University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH
Telephone - 0116 2523387
e-mail - gat at le.ac.uk
web page -  http://www.le.ac.uk/biology/gat/gat.html