Chatham Rise is a submarine ridge extending ∼1,500 km due east of the South Island, New Zealand. It consists of continental basement rocks (Mesozoic graywackes) overlain by Mid- to Late Cretaceous marine sedimentary rocks and Paleocene–Miocene chalks and greensands, with sporadic Pliocene–Pleistocene intraplate volcanic edifices, especially along its northern and eastern margins. Seabed habitats are impacted by bottom trawling across most parts of the rise, with major fisheries for orange roughy, oreos (Allocytus niger and Pseudocyttus maculatus), and alfonsino (Beryx splendens) on pinnacles and slope areas along the northern and eastern flanks, hoki over water depths of 500–800 m on the flanks, and scampi (Metanephrops challengeri), hake (Merluccius australis), and ling (Genypterus blacodes) on the crest of the rise. Before the development of deep-water fisheries in the 1970s, Chatham Rise supported very large populations of orange roughy. These populations are now considerably reduced and larger aggregations, particularly in spawning season, are known to persist only on a few seamounts. The main geomorphic features of the Chatham Rise are the smoothly sloping flanks (predominantly north- and south-facing), the flat-lying, though locally topographically irregular crestal region (including several prominent banks), and isolated groups of volcanic peaks or seamounts, with occasional sea valleys found on the flanks. Except for the emergent Chatham Islands, the rise deepens generally to the east, eventually merging with the abyssal plain of the Southwest Pacific Basin

Depth range
50- 2000 m

Mesophotic “mentions”
0 x (total of 3372 words)

Classification
* Presents original data
* Focused on 'mesophotic' depth range

Fields
Biodiversity
Community structure
Geomorphology

Focusgroups
Overall benthic (groups)

Locations
New Zealand

Platforms
Drop / Towed Video
Sonar / Multibeam