But what about those snails that live in much deeper waters?
Because working underwater is so hard, scientists haven’t been able to study these snails nearly as closely, and don’t even really know how many species inhabit our oceans. To help with this problem, scientists have built models using variables such as water temperature, depth, substratum type and species distribution to predict habitat types.

While this technology usually includes large mobile species such as fish, many of the smaller, numerous and more diverse groups that live on our on the ocean floor (such as sea snails) has not yet been included to help predict our marine habitat types.

Unfortunately, without this knowledge, we are unable to properly understand complex deep-sea ecosystems and cannot properly manage the sustainable use of Africa’s diverse marine resources, both for commercial fishing as well as for the millions of African’s who rely on daily subsistence fishing.

𝑇𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑚, 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑒 (𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 30 𝑚) 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑢𝑠𝑐𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑢𝑚 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑚𝑒 (1981 – 1997) 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑢𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡 𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑒𝑠. 𝐼𝑛 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑜, 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑐 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑠.

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