An MMS workshop report on the deepwater GOM concluded that there was a need for additional information on the composition and structure of benthic communities, the associated biogeochemical processes, habitat heterogeneity and physiography, trophic interactions, and the biological "health" of the region (Carney 1998). The deep-sea is a setting within which benthic communities survive and propagate in the northern GOM. The deep-sea is characterized by total darkness, low temperature, nearly featureless mud, sparse food resources, predictable biomass patterns, unusual diversity patterns, and poorly defined couplings to topography, biogeochemistry, and currents