**Charge Statement for ID 63, State of Deep Coral Communities of the
United States**

The Coral Reef Conservation Program respectfully requests your review of
the enclosed report, titled "[State of Deep Coral Communities of the
United States]{.underline}." We request your written comments within
four (4) weeks of receiving this message.

In December 2004, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
issued a Final Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review (OMB
Bulletin) establishing peer review standards that would enhance the
quality and credibility of the federal government's scientific
information. Among other information, these standards apply to
Influential Scientific Information (ISI), which is information that can
reasonably be determined to have a "clear and substantial impact on
important public policies or private sector decisions."

The Coral Reef Conservation Program has developed a report on the status
of deep coral resources found within US waters. This report is
appropriately considered Influential Scientific Information. For this
reason, these reports are subject to the review requirements of both the
Information Quality Act and the OMB Bulletin guidelines.

**Charge**

Currently there is no comprehensive scientific document detailing the
distributional and state of deep coral communities with in US waters.
For the purposes of this report, structure-forming deep corals are
colonial, azooxanthellate corals generally occurring at depths below 50m
to 100m that provide biogenic habitat that can be utilized by other
species; deep coral communities are defined as assemblages of these
corals and other associated species. The report should provide a summary
of the state of our knowledge of these resources, the geologic and
oceanographic setting, biology of deep coral species, spatial
distribution, species associations, stressors (e.g. human impacts),
current management actions to address these stressors and priorities to
further understand and protect of these resources. Threats to the
resource are rated. References, tables, figures, and summary graphics
are given as appropriate, but original sources are likely to contain
much more information.

We are interested in your expert opinion on the comprehensiveness and
cohesiveness of the report as it relates to resource status,
identifications of serious mistakes or gaps, and whether you feel other
data and information could or should have been incorporated. We welcome
any recommendations you may have regarding additional data or
information sources that may improve the report.

**Posting of Review Comments**

Current OMB Bulletin guidelines require that reviewer comments, names,
and affiliations be posted on the agency website:

<http://www.osec.doc.gov/cio/oipr/pr_plans.htm>

Reviewer comments, however, will [not]{.underline} be attributed to
specific individuals. Nevertheless, by agreeing to be a reviewer for
this report, you must agree to allow your comments to be posted on the
web, along with those of other reviewers, and have your name and
affiliation posted, though the names will not be linked to specific
comments.

**Conflict of Interest**

For this review process, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) adapted the National Academy of Sciences' (NAS)
policy for committee selection with respect to evaluating conflicts of
interest when selecting peer reviewers who are not federal government
employees. Please read the attached conflict of interest policy and
complete and return the attached Conflict of Interest form by mail or
fax (301-713-1594).

On behalf of the staff of the Coral Reef Conservation Program, I thank
you for taking the time to review this report. I am confident that your
assistance will improve the quality of the document.