As I began my master’s in biological oceanography in Kiel one year ago during the pandemic, I could not do as much field work and lab work as planned. The last year was tough due to all the online courses, which is why I am excited to join the current research cruise on RV SONNE and again gain practical experience in marine sciences. Two years ago, I was an intern at GEOMAR in Kiel and remember when my supervisor showed me the 360° online tour of Research Vessel SONNE. We were so impressed by this state-of-the-art, highly technological deep-sea research vessel and I would’ve never thought to be once part of the scientific crew on board. Well, here we are. Emden, 05.11.2021, 8.00 am – my first cruise on RV SONNE begins.
Two days ago, all scientists needed to do a corona test and luckily, all of us were tested negative and could join the cruise. We are an international team of 27 scientists from the Senckenberg Institute in Wilhelmshaven and Hamburg, the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre in Kiel, the British Antarctic Survey in the United Kingdom, and the Universities of Hamburg and Oldenburg. Although several different projects and working groups are incorporated on board, all scientists together with the crew function as a single team. For me, it almost feels like a small family you’re travelling and working with for the upcoming weeks.
Our expedition, IceDivA2, will take us from Emden (Germany) towards Norway, and from there, off the coast of Greenland; assessing the genetics, ecology, and biodiversity of marine animals. To reach the North Sea, we first had to pass through the lock in Emden. Once again, my greatest respect to the captain and the pilot who impressively navigated this huge ship through the small opening. It was lovely to see for me that my family came all the way to Emden to watch the departure and say goodbye. That way, we also got some nice pictures of the vessel leaving Emden. With this lovely support in mind, I will now begin my adventurous journey through the stormy North Sea into the Atlantic Ocean to investigate the so far poorly explored biodiversity of the deep sea.
After 6 weeks at sea aboard the RV Sarmiento de Gamboa, it’s time for us to sign off. The ship is heading north to the Canaries where the team will disembark and head off home. Massive thanks to all the team on board the ship, our blog contributors and the support team back at base… as well as to you, our readers! See you on the next expedition!
The iMirabilis2 team
By Kelsey Archer Barnhill
The iMirabilis2 expedition has always had capacity building and outreach at the centre of its goals. This blog and website are two of the outputs created to help share the science we conduct at sea. Throughout the cruise we also ran a smaller, personalised programme called the ‘ship-to-shore buddies scheme.’ Through this program, iAtlantic fellows and other associated early career researchers were given an insider’s look at life on a cruise. This group of 18 onshore buddies were paired with the early career researchers on board to stay up to date on the happenings on the Sarmiento de Gamboa. Onshore and offshore buddies created a WhatsApp group to share daily updates and communicate informally during the cruise. There were also weekly zoom calls on Thursdays (see photo, right) for the buddies to get live access on board for one hour. Each week a training video would be shown on the call and any questions were answered. A piece of kit or a research technique was then explained in detail after which a discussion occurred. The on shore buddies got to connect with myself each week along with appearances from Bea Vinha, Daniëlle de Jonge, Alycia Smith, Richard Austin-Berry, and Eoin O’Hobáin.
Everyone on board had a great time connecting with the onshore buddies. It was exciting to share updates to the group and be met with enthusiastic responses. The zoom talks were engaging and some questions meant I spent 30 minutes finding out an answer for a buddy the next day. We wanted to focus on some of the on shore buddies who joined the scheme in this blog post by having them share a bit about themselves and how they found their experience in the scheme.
Daniela Yepes Gaurisas
I am a Colombian deep-sea lover with a great interest in the taxonomy and ecology of deep-sea benthos. I worked on deep-sea brittle star systematics during my Masters at UNAM, México, and on taxonomy and ecology of deep-sea and sandy beach macrofauna from the Caribbean Sea at the INVEMAR institute in Colombia. During my PhD at the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES) in Vitória, Brazil, and as an iAtlantic fellow on WP4, I am studying how climate change is impacting deep-sea benthic ecosystems, identifying and quantifying the effects of these changes on benthic ecological processes.
Unfortunately, I was not able to participate in the iMirabilis2 expedition due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but I am part of an excellent team that made it possible all our experiments in Cabo Verde! Daniëlle and Alycia did an excellent job testing how the temperature increase and the decline of organic matter quality to the seafloor can affect the benthic deep-sea life for next century. They really made me feel part of the expedition, keeping in touch with me, and sharing everything that happened with our onboard work. In addition to Kelsey who shared with us all their adventures in the middle of the ocean every day! iMirabilis2 was a great expedition! I am excited waiting for my samples, to identify them and analyse them isotopically to see our final results, and to compare them with those of our iAtlantic future expedition in the Santos Basin, Brazil (study area 10) next year!
Dkawlma Tora
I am Dkawlma Tora from Togo and I live in Cape Verde for my studies. I am a Master student at Technical Atlantic University of Mindelo- Sao Vicente through WASCAL Scholarship. The area of my study is Climate Change and Marine Sciences.
I am very excited about the marine domain (marine pollution) and iMirabilis2 was of great interest to me because the Shipboard training is part of my upcoming courses. It was very awesome to follow their work day by day on WhatsApp and to meet the staff and speak with them by Zoom calls. It enabled me to know more about the implementation of research with vessels, the equipment and its use. It was also amazing to discover the riches of Cape Verde Sea’s life.
Grant van der Heever
I am an instrument technician at the South African Environmental Observation Networks Offshore node based in Cape Town South Africa. Here, my main duties are the planning and execution of at-sea surveys and the operation and maintenance of the sampling equipment used during those surveys. The sampling equipment I operate relies on underwater visual and physical sampling equipment to investigate long-term ecological change in the understudied deeper waters of South Africa. Although my scientific interests are broad, understanding and quantifying the habitats of benthic fish and invertebrates inhabiting South Africa’s offshore ecosystems is my primary focus.
The ship-to-shore buddy experience was amazing and the fellows definitely made us feel like we were part of the scientific team. Our Thursday evening chats were definitely something to look forward to, and I enjoyed every aspect of it! I especially enjoyed the benthic landers and camera trap discussion sessions and I was really fascinated by the interesting fish fauna that were sampled. Even though I was supposed to be a participant on the cruise, the ship-to-shore buddy initiative made the missed opportunity feel less like a loss. I would like to commend the fellows for their efforts!
Luther Adams
I am a Masters student in the Biological Sciences department at the University of Cape Town using a remotely operated vehicle to explore temperate mesophotic ecosystems on the Wild Coast of South Africa.
Research groups all over the world should run a ship to shore buddy program on all research expeditions big or small. This platform has created a space for relaxed interactions between emerging scientists from various parts of the world to exchange ideas and learn new skills. The weekly zoom calls were immensely interesting and have given me insights into the challenges and opportunities of multidisciplinary deep sea research using state of the art technologies. I hope to be part of many more programmes like this one.
Maurício Santos Andrade
I am Mauricio. I live in Brazil, where I graduated in Oceanography in 2019 at the Federal University of Bahia. During my undergraduate program, I focused on understanding the carbon cycle in the blue carbon ecosystems and how anthropogenic impacts may alter its ability to store carbon. Nowadays, I am a master’s student at the Federal University of Rio Grande, where I am working with polar biogeochemistry (carbonate system parameters in the Northern Antarctic Peninsula). Also, I am one of five students awarded with the West P&I Bursary 2021 at the National Oceanography Centre – University of Southampton. I love getting in touch with the marine environment and experience new moments with it, such as fieldwork in coastal zones and cruises in the open ocean.
The Whatsapp group was an excellent place to keep us updated about the activities on board at the iMirabilis cruise throughout August 2021. This group, along with the Zoom meetings weekly, was a good experience to participate in a cruise even we were not on it in person. The multidisciplinarity on the iMirabilis cruise was terrific. Indeed, the buddies on board translated that scientific environment through discussions, presenting some methods and previous results, and how to work with new approaches for me, personally, such as the ROV used. That time together was like a class to explore the potential of this cruise while it was going on. Even with some experience on board, the people’s disposition on board was essential to making this experience a great one. Every time we had a question, they spent efforts to get information from the other people on board to bring to us as much information as they can. In summary, this experience was like a logbook with constant updates that certainly added a lot to my career as an oceanographer.
Pedro Oliveira
My name is Pedro, I’m a biologist and I recently started my Master’s in Oceanography. I will work with the distribution and taxonomy of the octocoral genus Primnoella in the Campos and Santos Basins as a part of the iAtlantic Project here in Brazil.
I was very excited when Kelsey invited me to the Ship-to-Shore buddy program and also with the opportunity to get an inside view of an oceanographic expedition. It was great to learn about the routine in a scientific ship as well as the research other team members are doing, and how they come together to solve any problem that would come up. Overall, it was a highly enriching experience, especially getting to know other early-career scientists who share as much admiration for the deep sea as I do.
Renata Arantes
My name is Renata Arantes, I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in the iAtlantic project. I work with deep sea habitat characterization, focusing on deep-sea coral habitats in the Brazilian continental slope. My postdoc project deals with deep-sea octocoral alpha taxonomy (based in morphological characters) and the development of a set of macroscopic characteristics for the recognition of these species through ROV images, wherever it is possible.
It was a very interesting experience to be part of the ship to shore buddy program. I finally got to know some of my iAtlantic fellows and had the opportunity to communicate regularly with them during all cruise. iMirabilis was an international multidisciplinary expedition with so many different activities that even remotely allowed us to know in detail all the sampling methods as well the functioning of the sampling devices, which some of us never had the opportunity to work with before. Besides our weekly meetings we interacted by message very often getting first-hand the daily expedition’s highlights, which was pretty amazing when you realize that the Cabo Verde region was a unexplored area, a privilege for those who work in the deep sea.
Daniel Quaye
My name is Daniel Quaye. I am from Ghana but currently in Cape Verde as a student in the WASCAL master’s research program in Climate Change and Marine Sciences at the Atlantic Technical University. I am interested in ecology and population dynamics, and how environmental changes impact aquatic populations.
As a young scientist looking forward to my first cruise next year (fingers crossed), I recognized this innovative ‘Ship-to-Shore’ buddy system of iMirabilis2 as a good training opportunity. Indeed, my virtual interaction with fellows on the expedition has been very beneficial. My learning experience ranged from discussions on life at sea (mostly devoid of sleep), clothing, popular medication, as well as a dive into the different research questions being pursued by fellows.
Over these past couple of weeks, I have been exposed to knowledge on deep-sea ecosystems, their functioning, sampling techniques and illustrations of various equipment and instruments (an ROV, AUV and benthic lander). The buddies WhatsApp group was mostly buzzing with regular updates. Despite their busy schedule, I found fellows ever ready to share and explain different aspects of their work to us. It was also quite satisfying fellows were able to share preliminary results from their analysis via our weekly live chat on Zoom.
Overall, though I followed the expedition from a desktop, I think it’s fair to say I was part of this novel exploration of the deep-sea ecosystems of Cabo Verde. The entire team’s level of engagement was high. A big appreciation to the all fellows (Bea, Kelsey, Danielle, Alycia), the organizers and members of the different research teams for such a wonderful experience.
By Veerle Huvenne
Thursday afternoon, 26 August. I’m sitting in the acoustics lab, monitoring the multibeam echosounder. We are carrying out our last bathymetry data collection as we are leaving our study area. Data collection until the very last moment!
Finally I can find some peace and quiet to reflect on the past 4 weeks. It has been a whirlwind of an expedition, and only now I’ve found the time to read all the blog contributions (thank you Kelsey, Vikki and the whole outreach team for pulling this together!), and to gather my own thoughts.
As I said: it has been a very busy expedition. Our research had lots of facets, we used lots of different types of equipment, which all together led to lots of different operations at lots of different locations. This resulted in a complex and challenging planning exercise, which our chief scientist Cova carried out expertly!
All that planning and all these operations required a good spatial awareness and understanding of the study area. The question “where are we, and where will we do the next operation?” was always on my mind. To answer it, we used a Geographical Information System (GIS) populated with, among others, existing bathymetry data, but we also gathered our own. Based on a careful interpretation of these bathymetric maps, we planned the ROV and AUV missions, chose coordinates for coring, CTDs and lander deployments. Looking back at it, the only thing I can say is: we covered a lot of ground!
Between helping Cova with the planning, choosing coordinates and waypoints, and the coordination of operations during the night (a task shared with Andrea Gori), I also had the chance to take part in some of the science work, particularly the coring, multibeam mapping and the ROV dives.
Coring operations always provide excitement and anticipation. When the core lands on the seabed, after sometimes more than 2 hours of winching down (for cores at >4000m water depth), we watch the tension on the wire carefully. Did the core land properly? How much does the tension increase when we start winching the core back up? Does this suggest a good sediment recovery? Then we have to wait again for more than 2 hours until the core is on deck and we know the answers! Once a multicore arrives on board, the six core tubes are subsampled in different ways, to provide sample material for a variety of analyses and research questions. Generally this is a fun activity: as adults we get to play with mud without any questions asked! I’m sure Erik, Susan, Cova, Andrea, Kelsey and Bea would agree. When our interpretation of the bathymetry suggests that the sediment may be coarser (e.g. sand), we use a boxcore. On Cadamosto Seamount we tried several times to take boxcores, with varying success. It is not easy to find the pockets of sediment that can be cored on a seamount! Whichever were the outcomes of the cores, it was always a pleasure to work with coring techs Mario and Ivan. Lots of good conversations at 3am while watching the core go down or come up!
Also working with an ROV is always a treat: there is always some discovery, even if it’s the discovery that there isn’t much to discover… By itself that fact tells us something about the area, the seafloor habitat, the geological, biological and oceanographic processes going on. However, during this expedition we had a lot to discover, and the habitats on the flanks of Brava, Fogo and Cadamosto host the most amazing coral gardens and sponge fields. It was very nice to work with the Luso ROV team, they are very professional, 200% dedicated, and just super-friendly! Having the possibility to adapt the vehicle to accommodate the RoCSI sampler and an extra camera for the last 2 dives made our work with the Luso extra special.
Compared to the buzz of coring, lander recovery or ROV work, gathering bathymetry data with the ship’s multibeam echosounder feels like an operation at a totally different pace. It is fascinating to see all the details of the seafloor morphology being painted on the screen, ping by ping. To paraphrase a well-known advert: good things happen to those who wait! I’m very grateful to Pablo, our acoustics expert, and everybody who joined in with the task of monitoring the multibeam echosounder. The system mostly works independently, but occasionally it needs a nudge or a tweak, so we always had somebody on watch during dedicated operations.
Unfortunately our AUV Autosub6000 was plagued by several technical issues. This was extra frustrating for me because I have had the chance to work with the team and the vehicle several times before and I know what fantastic data they can provide. It would have been great to have high-resolution maps of Cadamosto, combined with eDNA samples and extensive photography. However, such is the nature of work at sea, particularly when using complex and advanced technology: the more complex the system, the more challenging to operate all components at an optimal level. The Autosub team, together with Susan, took on this challenge in full, and despite the setbacks we obtained the world’s first eDNA samples collected autonomously at >3000m water depth. That is quite a feat!
As I am writing these words, we have just gone past the last waypoint of our dedicated bathymetric survey. That means the core operations of the iMirabilis2 expedition have now finished. It feels a little surreal… The main thing I will take home from this expedition is the impressive collaborative spirit across the teams and the crew, and the resilience of everyone on board, constantly adapting plans and finding new solutions for problems and challenges. This too is the nature of work at sea: we’re literally ‘in the same boat’ and have to make things work with the means we have – and the whole team have done so brilliantly: scientists, technicians, and also the crew and officers, who have been working with great professionalism. A massive muchas gracias, obrigada, dankjewel, thank you very much, mille grazie to everyone on board!
By Kelsey Archer Barnhill
Yesterday was the last day of scientific operations in the Cabo Verde region for iMirabilis2. Our last station was a multibeam survey which we finished just after lunch. We are now steaming back to Las Palmas on a four-day transit.
The lander team is happy with their grand total of 16 deployments. The final breakdown was 8 camera landers, 5 respirometer landers, and 3 baited traps. These deployments combined with their ex situ experiment meant the team met all of their cruise goals and are leaving Cabo Verde with a really nice data set. Danielle de Jonge shared with me that it is really cool to have respiration rates for this region as they were not previously known. Over the past few days they team recovered their last baited trap with 10 fish, filtered water from a CTD taken nearby the lander area to look at the quality of incoming flux, and took macrofauna samples from two multicore samples. The images below show some of the highlights from the final deployments (images © Prof. Andrew Sweetman / Lyell Centre-HWU / iMirabilis2)
We had 22 CTD deployments, with the latest taken yesterday off of Brava. With the final CTD, there is now information about the water parameters at all ROV dive sites. With this many CTDs, that means a lot of water filtered! Bea Vinha and Andrea Gori alone filtered 275 litres of water for stable isotopes, fatty acids, and particulate organic carbon.
Ten ROV dives were completed during the cruise. Eight of these were for seamount and continental shelf habitat mapping and sample collection, and two dives were for abyssal biology and testing RoCSI. RoCSI was successfully integrated into ROV Luso for these last two dives, with toughened housing for sample cartridges and a 6000m rated battery pack. The different science objectives for the latest two dives made pilots fly in a new way. In standard ROV dives, they follow a transect and try to film the area in the best way possible, zooming in on interesting fauna. They keep a lookout for spots that are more attractive for finding new things for the scientists to view. They are also prepared to stop and sample when requested. On the latest two dives the main goal was to follow a transect while maintaining position and altitude accuracy to take pictures. It was during the most recent of these 2 abyssal dives that Bruno Ramos obtained a new depth record for ROV Luso of 3510m. When you go deeper there is a concern as to whether or not all your setups are correct. Something can become a problem that was not an issue at previous depths, so the pilots remained extra vigilant throughout the dive. Luckily, everything went according to plan. At the end of the final ROV dive, the mood in the van was great and spirits were high. It is always a significant moment when scientific missions for a cruise come to an end.
On the penultimate dive, the ROV pilots had to fight against a strong current and a swell which grew in strength as the afternoon went on. This made it difficult for the ROV to maintain a constant position and altitude. These conditions combined with some Hypac ship navigation issues meant we could not conduct the transects as initially planned during our three hours on the seafloor. There was also a glitch with the battery pack and RoCSI did not switch on. Back on deck, the adaptations made for the integration seemed successful despite exposure to a high sediment load during the dive. After this dive there were many discussions about how to power RoCSI so we could continue testing. In the end, the amazing ROV team came to the rescue in the early hours of the morning and made a new cable to enable RoCSI to be powered via their depth sensor. Another ROV dive was scheduled later that day and everyone crossed their fingers that the epoxy resin used to protect the electronics had set enough to allow the cable to work at pressure and in water. The second dive went a lot smoother after diverting to a different location and the the ROV was able to maintain position with low altitude variations. The benthic survey lasted four hours and was quite interesting for Erik. While it was not the full quantitative dataset he had hoped for, it is a novel survey in Cabo Verde on the type of feature at 3500m depth. He now has a descriptive dataset to work with, describing what lives in the environment where interesting organisms were seen and algal mats were present which was quite interesting as it indicates a clear transport of nutrients to the site. Unfortunately, RoCSI did not collect any samples on this dive either, and Susan Evans is hard at work investigating to find the exact cause. Despite all this, there are many positives to be taken from these dives as far as RoCSI is concerned: we never set out to test RoCSI on two platforms during the expedition so this was an added bonus and will inform future design and development.
Some other last-minute operations include deploying zooplankton nets during the night off of Fogo, multibeam bathymetry acquisition and a final Autosub mission attempt. Bea Vinha is happy with the 7 plankton net samples we’ve taken which will be used for stable isotope analysis. Across all of our multibeam surveys we acquired over 50 hours of data, often going from late hours of night to early in the morning. For the latest Autosub mission, the team was on call waiting to see if and when the sub would go in. The sub was in great working condition and they were given the green light but unfortunately something happened during the launch and a recovery light came out early and got wrapped around the propeller, meaning the dive had to be aborted.
Now all the teams are packing up, writing up the cruise report, and enjoying their last days at sea. Most teams have been working on the cruise report along the way and are now making their final additions to the document. Some teams are also looking to provide preliminary results in the cruise report. Bea for example is looking through OFOP annotations to see what generalisations across ROV dive sites can be made. Our cruise report will be publicly released six months after the cruise.
Samples are being inventoried, packaged and prepared for transport. Many scientists on board are busy communicating with shipping companies to make sure all boxes will be shipped at the correct temperature to preserve the samples. Some are also arranging for analyses to be done once the samples are back on shore and can be sent off to laboratories. Some samples, like the macrofauna from the multicore and incubations, are being sent all the way to Brazil for our iAtlantic fellow, Daniela Yepes Gaurisas to work with. Most of the packing can be done in transit but the Autosub6000 team will have to wait until we reach port to take down their launch and recovery system. Until then, everyone is catching up on sleep and enjoying the beautiful sunsets on board as we head back to land.
By Miguel Souto
Working at sea has always been a priviliege. My childhood was very focused on developing individual skills playing tennis and trying to become a professional tennis player. When working at sea with a team, all the goals are achieved together and the mood of each person influences the mood of the group, making it important to look out for each other and use our skills to help one another. As an ROV pilot, I’ve already experienced a lot of good memories, but what surprises me the most is that I like it more every time I go at sea.
I have been working as an ROV pilot for 13 years. After I finished university, I was invited to do ROV pilot training with EMPEC. Being selected for ROV training was a good opportunity but it was not what I expected in some ways. As I did a marine sciences degree in university, I thought my career would be more scientific and less technical. When I started, EMEPC had just acquired the ROV Luso and during training we worked with professional ROV pilots from the team who we purchased the ROV from. We were trainees for three years before it was time to do our first solo mission in 2012.
I still draw upon my training during each dive, including lessons learned from our very first training session. I remember the man teaching me told us our job was to control all the little details and the best way to do this is slowly. Our first cruises were with EMEPC, but now we are involved with more scientific cruises. EMEPC has a geological focus so I mainly sample rocks. Rocks are more difficult to get a hold of but easy to sample once you have a grip. Now sailing on biological cruises, there’s more attention to be given to biological samples. It would be easy to just grab an organism, but we could crush it which wouldn’t be too good for the science team, so we have to be very careful when sampling.
For me, working at sea is amazing. It’s like an adventure. You are working with science, away from everyone back home, and the work must be done today, it cannot wait until tomorrow. We are also learning every minute. Each day we have a challenge and learn new skills to get tasks completed. At sea, it can be stressful sometimes having to do new things I’ve never done before. But, any challenge can be overcome when the ship comes together and I feel rewarded when I see the scientists happy with the results.
There have been some tense moments while piloting. I’ve had two scary moments with fishing cables during my career. One of these happened on this cruise. I was piloting on a dive when a cable appeared in front of the camera quickly, but we thought it was a coral. A moment later I knew something was wrong when I was not able to move the ROV forward. I turned the camera down and saw the cable there. At that instant my co-pilot and other team members in the room started working together and giving ideas. It was difficult to focus because there were so many people speaking at once, but all the ideas came together for a solution. I moved the ROV backwards and turned a bit because the cable was not parallel to the ROV. Then the cable slid off most of the ROV but was caught on the left manipulator arm. I moved the arm down and thankfully the cable slid off. In times like these, I get very focused and try to solve the problem, but I also rely on my team’s help.
Above: Some images taken by ROV Luso earlier this week. Images © ROV Luso / iMirabilis2
Sailing on iMirabilis2 has been very special cruise to me. The conditions on Sarmiento de Gamboa are great, there are nice people on board and the food is very good. This ship is always ready to work. But more than that, it’s the connection between people on this cruise that has made it special. Perhaps this is because of COVID-19 and the excitement of being able to be close to others again. I also am enjoying working with Cova Orejas as a cruise leader. Cova has a nice balance of pushing you professionally while still giving you time to be yourself. Her ability to take care of both aspects doesn’t always happen on board and it is quite rare.
Last night we broke the record for the deepest ever dive with Luso and our success was celebrated by a colleague playing a song on Galician gaita for us. It felt very good to have friends celebrating with us. It was my favourite moment of the cruise. More favourite moments have been the views of the sunrises, sunsets, moon, and stars. Seeing Bea Vinha’s excitement while I was piloting was also a nice moment. I was trying to focus on a challenging ROV dive but hearing Bea saying what an amazing area it was gave me a good sensation. I realised she was not worried about the dive and that any small issues I was dealing with were not problems for her. This gave me good motivation to continue making her happy with our piloting so she gets the best results in the end.
I’ve spent around one year of my life at sea throughout my career. This is one of the longest cruises I’ve been on. Myself and the ROV team will stay on board back to Vigo where we will prepare all our equipment to be sent back to Portugal. After that, I will take some time off and spend time with my family and dog. Especially after one year in my apartment, I want to travel and experience new things. I wouldn’t want to do any other job. I’m still eager to learn new things, but I don’t want to leave ROV dives. I like the science as well so maybe one day I’ll be a closer colleague to the scientists on the ship. Overall, I just like to work at sea.
By Beatriz Vinha
In the months prior to iMirabilis2, I spent time navigating through the literature in an attempt to create a mental image of the area we would be exploring. As scientific literature on the deep-sea of Cabo Verde is scarce, I immersed myself in Cabo Verde’s coastal marine biodiversity, oceanography and geology. An important part of my PhD research is focused on characterizing and mapping the deep-sea mega benthic communities of Cabo Verde. To prepare myself for this work, I dedicated a lot of my pre-cruise time to investigating described deep-sea mega benthic species from both nearby seamounts and other Macaronesia regions. From this I compiled my very own predicted cold-water corals species list I hoped to find during the ROV dives of iMirabilis2. For inspiration, I read Charles Darwin’s first chapter of “The Voyage of the Beagle”, where he describes the mesmerizing geological landscape of the archipelago, and I created a playlist of Cabo Verdean music. My expectations coming into the cruise were very high and I was so looking forward to feel the well-known Morabeza* of the Cabo Verde Archipelago, even if I knew that I would only experience it at sea.
Fast forwarding in time, the day of our first ROV dive arrived. I would finally be able to unveil Cabo Verde’s deep-sea mysteries! Every ROV dive of iMirabilis2 was different. Our first dive was on Fogo Continental shelf and we were able to see a very typical Macaronesia deep-sea benthic habitat. However, it was our first dive in Cadamosto seamount (southwest of Brava Island) that I will never forget as it was so different from everything I had expected to find! It was the first time we got to contemplate the big pillow lavas and amazing volcanic features of the seamount. When we reached the summit, we were fascinated to find red hydrothermally altered rocks with a very high density of organisms in the shape of white sticks, which everybody on board still wonders what they could be (there are different bets on sponges, polychaete tubes and even bryozoans have been mentioned). Through all dives, we saw a clear change with depth in species composition, and the northern part of Cadamosto is very different from the south, being especially characterized by large coral gardens, composed mainly by Enallopsammia sp. and Metallogorgia sp., as well as dense sponge aggregations.
After finishing ROV dive 10, I looked back at my pre-cruise species list and I realized we had found most of the cold-water coral species I hoped to find. If I already had a lot of questions before the cruise, now, after exploring the deep-sea of Cabo Verde, I have so many new and exciting questions that I hope to answer during the next years of my PhD.
There is no doubt that the amazement I felt while exploring Cabo Verde’s deep-sea corals and sponges for the first time is one of my favourite memories from iMirabilis2. However, since this is my first research cruise, iMirabilis2 has been very special on so many different levels. I started my PhD during the ongoing pandemic and, as a consequence, hadn’t had the chance to meet my two co-supervisors in person. Therefore, one of my personal highlights of this cruise was the opportunity to work on board with my supervisors, Cova Orejas and Veerle Huvenne, and to be able to discuss face-to-face exciting scientific ideas and plans. Through working with them, I also got a close look into all the logistics involved with cruise leadership and planning. I feel very grateful for their mentorship. Another personal highlight was being able to learn and work with Andreia, António, Bruno, Miguel and Renato from EMEPC’s ROV Luso team. On board iMirabilis2, I got to experience the importance of good planning and communication between the ROV pilots and the scientific team and received great insights into many technical details about the ROV that will surely be very useful once I start analysing the videos. Even though I am Portuguese, during the past years, I have been working and living in other countries, so it certainly felt extra special to work with the Portuguese Luso team and talk in my native language in a deep-sea research environment.
Now that we are preparing to start the transit from Cabo Verde to Las Palmas, I can say iMirabilis2 was everything I expected… and more! I am leaving Cabo Verde with my scientific sample “wishlist” fulfilled and with exciting data that provides new scientific information on an Atlantic deep-sea unexplored area, but, above all, with great memories, new friends and, certainly, a lot of sodade** of the life on board Sarmiento de Gamboa.
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*Morabeza is a word used in Cabo Verdean Creole to describe the hospitality and friendliness of the Cabo Verde archipelago and its people.
**Sodade means “Saudade” in Cabo Verdean Creole, a Portuguese word that stands for the feeling of longing something/somebody.
By Kelsey Archer Barnhill
A few months ago I helped the UK Primary Science Teaching Trust put together a slideshow about being a deep-sea ecologist for their teaching resource initiative ‘A Scientist Just Like Me.’ The goal of these slideshows, aimed at young children, is to encourage schoolchildren to consider what scientists are like and what types of skills are required. I was asked to provide four skills that are needed which children could relate to. The very first one I chose was creativity, which I explained with “getting a robot to the seafloor to retrieve an unusual animal certainly takes a lot of imagination and problem solving!“
Well, creativity, imagination, and problem solving were all certainly used on board the Sarmiento de Gamboa over the past few days! Technical difficulties with the Autosub6000 have meant that Susan Evans and Erik Simon Lledó have been hard at work with the technical teams to adapt current on board technologies to collect their data.
While Susan has successfully collected eDNA samples with RoCSI on Autosub missions, she would like to ground-truth the method by correlating organism presence in her eDNA samples to organisms seen in ROV images at the same site. Erik, whose work is focused on abyssal biology, has not yet obtained any seafloor image data on this cruise which is needed for his research. In order to conduct their research, Susan and Erik have been hard at work collaborating with all teams on board – along with some friends on land – to come together and solve the problem.
Today ROV Luso was refitted to prepare for its deepest dive ever, into the abyss for this mission. On our most recent dives, Luso has been operating without one of its thrusters. As there are multiple thrusters, this is a risk the team are willing to take when diving within their normal range. However, the upcoming mission is planned to dive to around 3400 m, pushing Luso 150 m deeper than its current record. Luso is rated to dive to this depth but has not needed to until now. For the team to feel confident about sending the ROV down so deep, they needed to get another thruster for more operational control and to make the ROV quicker. However, there was not a spare one on board. Though we are operating close to Cabo Verde and can often see an island or two on the horizon during the day, we are not allowed into port because of COVID-19 restrictions. Luckily we have a friend and colleague from Leg 0, Herculano Dinis, Executive Director of the Projecto Vitó Association, who lives on Fogo. Herculano was able to get the part we needed, and bring the propeller to the ship via a boat transfer which involved the Cabo Verde Policia Maritima. We crowded out on deck as we watched his small boat approach us, and the ship’s crane lowered down a bag to collect the part once the two ships were side by side. After a successful transfer, spirits on board both ships were high as we waved our goodbyes and thanked the team with a few blasts of the ship’s horn, which was answered by the Policia’s siren.
Our heroes! Video © Antonio Calado / EMEPC / iMirabilis2
With Luso now fully functional to dive to 3400 m, the next step was to offload RoCSI from the Autosub6000 and load it onto the ROV. The ROV team, AUV team, and Susan all worked together to first install RoCSI onto Luso’s frame and then secure it, protecting the syringes from movement and vibration with a plastic shield. RoCSI is now situated behind the ROV sampling drawer, and fits nicely into the frame without anything needing to be removed.
The final steps, which are ongoing, are to attach cameras for Erik’s work onto Luso. A new structure was built on the front of the ROV, where the ROV stills camera and the benthic lander team’s camera will both be mounted on a pole, along with lights for taking the pictures. The camera borrowed from the lander team will be the primary camera used for data collection and the ROV stills camera will be used for backup, as it has lower resolution.
The cameras will both point straight down at the seafloor, as opposed to the standard ROV cameras which are angled slightly forward for navigation and sampling purposes. For Erik’s work, the cameras must be mounted perpendicular for an overhead image of the seafloor. The ROV will also move differently than normal as it is important to fly at a constant speed and maintain a constant altitude on this mission. Constant speed is important as images are taken at a fixed interval, and moving at a known and fixed rate ensures the seafloor images don’t overlap. A constant altitude is needed so we can measure the size of organisms – this can be calculated from the pixel size of the image. The normal 4K video will also be recorded during the dive but this is secondary and will be used for qualitative purposes only; Erik’s survey is based on obtaining fully quantitative data.
The ROV will fly over an exact amount of area and so that we can quantify animal sizes to compare to previous work. These types of surveys are standardised so work done across regions and teams can be compared. Erik hopes to survey two locations: one north and one southeast of Cadamosto seamount. It is possible that one site is more exposed than the other – this hasn’t been confirmed due to lack of hydrological data, but there are higher shallow currents present at the north site. If there is a difference in environmental parameters, this could impact abyssal communities. Erik’s image work will be combined with results from Susan’s RoCSI samples to see if the two survey methods of quantifying biodiversity correlate.
The ROV pilots have been in discussion about how to adapt to this new survey method. The current plan is to try a combination of manual piloting and the auto-altitude setting. When the area is flat, the auto-altitude setting can be used but manual piloting will be needed for any larger or sudden elevation changes. They will be following a zig zag pattern in the survey Erik has prepared, with each line 600m long. To keep their speed constant they will need to maintain focus as currents can impact speed, meaning they will need to adjust trim accordingly. This dive will be technical and new for the ROV team, but they are up for the challenge!
It is truly impressive to see the creativity, problem solving, and most importantly, teamwork which have all worked together to make this new plan a reality. Let’s hope the weather is on our side to get Susan and Erik their data and Luso a new depth record!
Interview by Kelsey Archer Barnhill
Alycia has joined the iMirabilis2 cruise as part of the three-person Benthic Lander Team from Heriot-Watt University. I spoke with Alycia to find out more about her work on board and on shore.
Alycia Smith, postgraduate researcher
Alycia Jane Smith is a deep-sea ecology PhD researcher at the Lyell Centre, Heriot-Watt University. She holds a MSci Marine Biology from University of Southampton. During iMirabilis2, she is a member of the benthic landers team.
Q: What research do you do for your PhD?
My PhD, which I started a year ago, aims to quantify seafloor biogeochemistry and ecosystem processes and functioning in the NORI-D licence area of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone before and after polymetallic mining begins. This work is part of The Metals Company baseline project and the data will be used to make informed decisions and generate mining technologies that have as little environmental impact as possible.
Q: What interested you in studying the deep sea?
I first became aware of marine biology when I lived in Mauritius a decade ago. I remember I was studying my A-levels and we had an opportunity to write an extended project on any topic of our choice. I came across a news article that mentioned bioluminescence. I had never heard of that before so I started reading up on it and from there learned about hydrothermal vents, methane seeps and other deep sea environments and was immediately obsessed. I remember thinking how strange it was that I knew nothing about the deep sea. That is why at this stage in my career, I’m always so keen to do outreach because this is important science but is not common knowledge. I feel like people don’t care about the deep sea in the same way they care about dolphins or coral reefs. I wanted to have the chance to research this environment we know very little about and share it with people so they will also care about it and protect it.
Q: What do you do as a PhD Student?
A bit of everything! It surprised me how many different tasks we do and what we have to be involved with. On top of reading up on the subject to have an up-to-date view on the topic, we plan for these expeditions, deal with logistics and organisation, conduct lab work onshore and then come and join cruises which take huge chunks of time out of the year. Even before coming offshore there was required training to join the cruises as well as practical training to learn how to operate landers including electrical work such as servicing computers and housings. Before starting my PhD, I was only expecting mostly theoretical and lab training, I did not expect the variety of practical work we’re involved in. We also write a lot: cruise reports, progress reviews, and presentations for conferences to share our research. It’s also important to make all the work we do accessible for the greater public and get involved in outreach, which I really enjoy doing.
Q: What do you think about working at sea and how often do you join expeditions?
By the end of 2021, I will have spent 5 months at sea this year. I had never sailed on a cruise before and because I didn’t have any idea what was coming, I was very sceptical at first. However, the first cruise I joined was even better than I could have hoped for. I love the sense of camaraderie you build with both the science team and crew. You spend all this time with people every day for weeks on end, so you become really close to the people you work with. You can’t help but make some friends along the way and I am still in touch with people from that cruise now. It’s hard work and you need a break afterwards from the long days, but since I enjoy the work, it is a great experience and one I wouldn’t trade for anything else. My first time at sea made a huge difference in my understanding of my own work. Before going to sea I had only seen protocols or bits of equipment here or there, or chatted to my supervisor about what we would be doing. Once I was on the ship, I saw how everything works and ties together. Now when I do the ordering for my next cruise, I know why we need thousands of one item and 3 types of another, as well as their uses. I also understand deck layouts and why we want bits of our stations in one place or another. I overpacked the first time, I think I was worried about regretting leaving things behind and being so far away. Now I have a good idea of what is essential, which is mostly snacks. I really enjoy being out at sea, it’s good fun!
Q: What advice would you give to someone hoping to get into deep sea ecology?
Don’t be afraid to look for your own opportunities. Back when I started, I felt there weren’t many opportunities in deep sea research and it can be quite dissuasive when you are looking but can’t find anything. So, don’t be afraid to get in touch with people in the field, most of them are friendly. It’s amazing the things they can come up with to help you get involved to build up your experience before getting to your next stage. Try to keep on top of literature, as impossible as that is, but just set a search alert for a few key words so you have a baseline knowledge of your topics of interest. Also, don’t be afraid to narrow your interests. When I was at university, I was advised to keep my interests broad because it was hard to find a position in deep-sea science, but don’t let go of what you really want, even if you detour along the way! You’ll find other opportunities just as valuable, so take them. In the future, I would love to study other deep-sea habitats, such as hydrothermal vents. Also, make sure it’s right for you because it is hard work. If you try it out and it isn’t for you, don’t be afraid to change your course. Finding a team that supports you also goes a long way – shout out to mine for putting up with me!
Q: What is your favourite part of doing deep sea science?
Part of the reason I wanted to do marine research is that you become part of an international community. My favourite part of this job is getting to travel. When I woke up today, I could see both Brava and Fogo islands outside my window. I love being in the lab, but I feel my happiest when I am travelling, just having the time of my life and seeing someplace new. My PhD allowed me to travel to San Diego and see the United States of America for the first time, and now I’m off the coast of West Africa! The opportunities this field gives you for international travel are unmatched, it’s truly a global collaboration. Now I have friends working in deep sea all across the world!
By Murray Roberts, iAtlantic Project Coordinator
On 27 October 2017 the European Union launched a call for projects to assess the status of Atlantic marine ecosystems. A few months earlier, the EU, Brazil and South Africa had signed the Belém Statement on Atlantic Research and Innovation Cooperation. As well as doing excellent basic research, projects needed to meet the goals of the Belém Statement by being policy-relevant and designed to enhance human and technical capacity throughout the Atlantic Ocean.
Easy to talk about in meetings. Hard to achieve in practice.
In 2017 I was coordinating the North Atlantic ATLAS project. Could we build on what we’d learned in ATLAS and expand our scope to create a coordinated ecosystem assessment across the entire Atlantic Ocean? It sounded impossibly ambitious – but worth a try. I pulled people together in Edinburgh as soon as the call came out. This first stage of creating a new project is the most exciting. It’s all about ideas. You can go off in a hundred different directions, but your project must hang together as a whole – and it must work on what the funder’s looking to achieve. Forget this and forget any chance of getting funded.
From the outset we knew we would work on deep and open ocean Atlantic ecosystems, and we’d use a range of regional study areas to focus our efforts. At the end of the project, we wanted to be able to tell policy makers how ecosystems in these areas a doing. In a sense we wanted to give each system a health check. Knowing which ecosystems are under most pressure is essential if we’re going to design long-term strategies to sustainably manage ocean resources.
Sustainable ecosystem management is a holy grail for human societies across the world. For generations we’ve viewed the ocean as an infinite resource, but this view has been shattered by decades of overfishing, pollution and destructive human activities. On top of this the ramifications of global change are now changing the ocean faster than at any point in Earth’s history.
iAtlantic is tackling these issues head on. Our foundation is through work to understand Atlantic basin-scale circulation and improve South Atlantic Ocean monitoring. We have teams mapping the seafloor and using the data to better understand where species occur now and may occur in the future. We are using long-term ecological timeseries to see if certain systems are reaching critical thresholds and what might be driving these changes. We are working both at the deep-seafloor and in the laboratory to understand how multiple stressors are altering how ecosystems work. We are using this new understanding to explore sustainable management scenarios, and we are working closely with our industry partners, policy makers, NGOs and other stakeholders to continually refine and adapt. We need iAtlantic to be as relevant as possible.
It’s a huge task but very rewarding. One of the most rewarding parts of iAtlantic is the work we are doing to raise awareness of deep and open ocean ecosystems and to build human and technical capacities across the Atlantic – south, north, west and east. Do check out our newsletters, the amazing work of our iAtlantic Fellows and our online webinar archive where you can learn more about everything from humpback whale migration to species distribution modelling.
iAtlantic runs from 2019-23. Our work coincides with two of the most significant international policy discussions in living memory. The United Nations is negotiating a new legally binding instrument to manage biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, or the BBNJ treaty for short. iAtlantic’s deep and open ecosystem research programme is directly relevant to these negotiations, and we are researching how scientific information is used to shape this new treaty.
Our work also coincides with the UN’s Climate Conference COP26 being held in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021. It’s essential that the pivotal role of the ocean in Earth’s climate is recognised by the negotiators in Glasgow and that they remember how sensitive many deep and open ocean ecosystem are to climate change. Ahead of the COP26 negotiations iAtlantic co-authored a negotiators’ briefing “Why the Ocean matters in Climate Negotiations” and has proposed several events to the UK and Scottish Governments to take place during COP26.
All this rests on the shoulders of the 171 people who make up the iAtlantic consortium. Our approach as a project is very much like a research expedition at sea. Working at sea it’s very clear how dependent we are on one another. From the Captain on the bridge to the engineers, deck crew, chefs and scientists we all need each other to realise our plans. In iAtlantic we do all we can to create the same close team-working ethos we are enjoying here on iMirabilis2.
iMirabilis2 is our flagship expedition and I’m delighted to be on board. Running an international offshore research expedition during the COVID-19 is a huge achievement by Cova Orejas and her team. I’m very grateful for your passion and dedication!
So, what is iAtlantic? Yes, it’s the work we do, the discoveries we make, the policies we inform but above all it’s the spirit captured here on the iMirabilis2 expedition. It’s all about the people and the bonds we form working together on something we all care about – the future of Our Ocean.
© 2024 iAtlantic. All rights reserved.
This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 818123 (iAtlantic). This output reflects only the author’s view and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.