Dr. Hildie Maria E. Nacorda, SESAM professor, participated in the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting held last February 21 to 26 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

Together with colleagues from the UP Marine Science Institute (UPMSI) and the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology (IESM) who all contributed papers to the Conference, Dr. Nacorda presented the talk “Exploring Mesopothic Depths off the Philippine Sea: Coral Reefs on the Benham Bank Seamount” in the Marine Ecosystems session Exploration, Research and Assessment of Complex Deep-Sea Ecosystems: Recent Advances, Holistic Approaches, and Future Challenges. Her talk highlighted the key results from the observational surveys conducted at the Benham Bank in 2014.            The paper presented is under the “Exploration, Mapping, and Assessment of Deep Water Areas” research program, funded by Department of Science and Technology/Philippine Council for Agriculture,  Aquaculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development-Grants in Aid (DOST-PCAARRD-GIA). (John Miko R. Ofalsa)