[4] The Bear Seamount is the first guyot in a chain of about 30 extinct volcanoes extending in a straight line south-eastwards from the edge of the continental shelf near Woods Hole, Massachusetts to north-east of Bermuda.

Over time they have been eroded and have developed flat table-like summits surrounded by slopes with an inclination of about 20°.

The top is covered by a deep layer of sediment through which basaltic rocks and erratic boulders protrude.

The NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service deep water research vessel R/V Delaware II made 20 exploratory trawls in the vicinity of Bear Seamount and around 274 species were collected.

Other invertebrates caught by trawls dragged along the seamount surface included 46 species of crustacean such as the prawns Sergestes spp.