howard trough named in honor of late texas a&m oceanography researcher matthew k howardunderwater feature in the flower garden banks national marine sanctuary has officially been named after dr matthew k howardaug 6 2019on july 16 an underwater feature located in the flower garden banks national marine sanctuary in the gulf of mexico was officially named howard trough after approval by the us board on geographic names howard trough is named in honor of the late dr matthew k howard who was the data management and communications manager for the gulf of mexico coastal ocean observing system (gcoos) and research scientist in the department of oceanography at texas a&m universitybathymetry of the west flower garden banks black arrow indicates the location of howard trough (figure courtesy of dr chris simoniello as modified from m nutall 2019)the late dr matthew k howard served as the data management and communications manager for gcoos and as a research scientist in the department of oceanography at texas a&m university (photo courtesy of texas a&m oceanography)this is a wonderful tribute to our friend and colleague dr matthew howard said dr shari yvon-lewis professor and the head of texas a&m oceanography dr howard was an aggie oceanographer who dedicated his career to pioneering oceanography research ocean observing systems and data management his life at texas a&m began when he was a graduate student in the department of oceanography and received his phd in oceanography in 1992 later he worked in many collaborative research groups including the geochemical environmental research group (gerg) and gcoos contributing to ocean research for almost 30 years much of his work was focused on the flower garden banks national marine sanctuary located offshore of galveston texas where he worked on projects ranging from water quality and hypoxia to oil spill mitigation sadly dr howard died on feb 8 2018 while attending a business conference in seattle washington dr chris simoniello a research scientist at texas a&m oceanography and outreach and education manager for gcoos led the request process for naming howard trough in his honor matthew was such a force of nature everything he did was for the benefit of people and the environment said simoniello naming a feature after matthew in the place where he exponentially advanced the science seemed like a fitting tribute the discovery of howard trough goes back to 1997 when a team of scientists led by dr jim gardner undertook mapping the bathymetry of the flower garden banks and stetson bank in the gulf of mexico at the time the multibeam sonars technique combined with extremely accurate ship motion sensors and precise navigation enabled unprecedented resolution in mapping the seafloor this shed light on many previously unmapped bathymetric features including pinnacles and troughs howard trough is located at the north end of the main west flower garden bank plateau the trough is about 170 m deep over the years many interesting features have been discovered at the howard trough: a drowned reef at 128 m was described in 1973; a living coral reef habitat was identified in 1980 and the area was described as an old salt dome in 1985 simoniello said one aspect that intrigued matthew was the connection between land and sea – he spent time at sea in flower garden banks to better understand the connection between coastal and nearshore activities and ecosystem health said simoniello in the footprint of west flower garden banks howard trough is part of an important ecological and economic area with so many natural resources various research projects are anticipated to be ongoing as climate change poses new threats potential projects range from mapping habitat and assessing biodiversity to tracking harmful algal blooms and hypoxia when i undertook the application process i went down many dead-end roads before hitting the jackpot with helpful patient bathymetry experts said simoniello simoniello expressed her gratitude to several people who helped with the naming process including jennifer jencks national centers for environmental information of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration; dr jim gardner center for coastal and ocean mapping university of new hampshire who participated in the original mapping studies; and bobby jovanovski national geospatial intelligence agencyphoto of dr matthew k howard with the gcoos data management team from left to right bob currier felimon gayanilo dr matthew k howard marion stoessel and dr shin kobara (photo courtesy of dr chris simoniello)photo of dr matthew k howard during the gcoos 2017 staff retreat at point clear alabama from left to right felimon gayanilo dr chris simoniello marion stoessel laura caldwell dr shin kobara dr matthew k howard jen vreeland dr barb kirkpatrick bob currier grant craig and nadine slimak (photo courtesy of gcoos)the world is a far better place for matthew having been here simoniello said matthew was the most humble and unassuming genius ive ever had the pleasure of knowing i think he would suggest that any time a texas a&m cruise passes over his feature they must raise their glasses in a toast! i am deeply grateful and humbled by the team of experts who helped make howard trough happen to pay a fitting tribute to one who lived so expertly by bumsoo kim