What happened to SeamountsOnline?

The SeamountsOnline system has had a major system failure. We are assessing our options for rebuilding the site and finding a new server, but this may take some time as the SeamountsOnline project is no longer funded. In the meantime, there are two ways to you can access the SeamountsOnline data:

  1. The international OBIS portal. To access only SeamountsOnline data once on the OBIS site, go Search Data, click on the Datasets bar in the left-hand menu, click on CoML in the Provider list, and then on SeamountsOnline in the dataset list that opens. You can add further search restrictions on taxa, region, date, etc. if desired. OBIS holds all the species occurrence data in SeamountsOnline, but it does not hold the associated sample type or seamount information. If sample or seamount information is important to you, please use the download option, below.
  2. Download the data. The full data from SeamountsOnline can be downloaded as a set zipped CSV files. Click to download

If you are having difficulty, please

What is SeamountsOnline?

Since 2001, SeamountsOnline has been gathering data on species that have been observed or collected from seamounts and providing these data through a freely-available online portal. It is designed to facilitate research into seamount ecology, and to act as a resource for managers. It is also the database component of the Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts.

Who are we?

SeamountsOnline is led by Karen Stocks, a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Data Contents

SeamountsOnline holds data on species that have been recorded from seamounts. We do not follow a strict geological definition of a seamount, so data on features smaller than 1000m high are included. Both hydrothermally-active and non-active seamounts are included, though the coverage is better for non-venting seamounts. SeamountsOnline is no longer a funded project, and the contents are no longer being expanded. Please note that the contents of SeamountsOnline are not complete - it does not hold all existing seamount species information.

Where can I find more information on seamounts?

Looking for seamount location datasets?

SeamountsOnline holds information only on the couple of hundred seamounts for which it has species occurrence data. If you are looking for a dataset with the predicted locations of all seamounts, the following references will provide a starting point: