Rhian G. Waller Alexander R. Sirotek Julia M. Knisel John O’Malley Stian Alesandrini Kathryn M. Scanlon 2010 <p><span>The USGS Cold-Water Coral Geographic Database (CoWCoG) provides a tool for researchers and managers interested in studying, protecting, and/or utilizing cold-water coral habitats in the Gulf of Mexico and western North Atlantic Ocean.&nbsp; The database makes information about the locations and taxonomy of cold-water corals available to the public in an easy-to-access form while preserving the scientific integrity of the data.&nbsp; The database includes over 1700</span><strong><span>&nbsp;</span></strong><span>entries, mostly from published scientific literature, museum collections, and other databases.&nbsp; The CoWCoG database is easy to search in a variety of ways, and data can be quickly displayed in table form and on a map by using only the software included with this publication.&nbsp; Subsets of the database can be selected on the basis of geographic location, taxonomy, or other criteria and exported to one of several available file formats.&nbsp; Future versions of the database are being planned to cover a larger geographic area and additional taxa.</span></p> application/pdf 10.3133/ofr20081351 en U.S. Geological Survey USGS cold-water coral geographic database-Gulf of Mexico and western North Atlantic Ocean, version 1.0 reports