conducting a research cruise as part of the multiyear MMS Northern Gulf of Mexico Continental Slope Study (Gallaway et al., 1988). Bottom photography (processed on board the vessel) resulted in clear images of vesicomyid clam chemosynthetic communities coincidentally in the same manner as the first discovery by camera sled in the Pacific in 1977. Photography during the same LGL/MMS cruise also documented tube-worm communities in situ in the Central Gulf of Mexico for the first time (not processed until after the cruise; Boland, 1986) prior to the initial submersible investigations and firsthand descriptions of Bush Hill () in 1986 (Rosman et al., 1987a; MacDonald et al., 1989b). The site was targeted by acoustic "wipeout" zones or lack of substrate structure caused by seeping hydrocarbons. This was determined using an acoustic pinger system during the same cruise on the R/V "Edwin Link" (the old one, only 113 ft (34 m)), which used one of the "Johnson Sea Link" submersibles. The site is characterized by dense tubeworm and mussel accumulations, as well as exposed carbonate outcrops with numerous gorgonian and "Lophelia" coral colonies. Bush Hill has become one of the most thoroughly studied chemosynthetic sites in the world.