Updated identification of VMEs on Cobb Seamount in the Northeast Pacific Ocean by including pennatulaceans as VME indicator taxa

Warawa et al. (2023) identified vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) on Cobb Seamount by applying a quantitative approach to assessing the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) criterion of structural complexity for identifying VMEs (FAO 2009) that was developed by Rowden et al. (2020). VMEs were identified using visual data as outlined in the North Pacific Fisheries Commission’s (NPFC’s) framework for identifying data to identify VMEs (See Annex 2.3 in NPFC 2025). In 2024, the NPFC Commission adopted the addition of pennatulaceans to the list of NPFC’s VME indicator taxa (NPFC 2024). Using Warawa et al.’s (2023) approach, we re-calculated their VME indicator taxa density threshold by including pennatulaceans as VME indicators. The updated threshold was 0.58 VME indicator taxa colonies m^-2. When we applied this updated threshold to visual data from autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) transects on Cobb Seamount, we identified three new areas as VMEs, each approximately 50 m².