Classroom@Sea » Cruises

Box coring the deep-sea floor

On Saturday we deployed the box-core over a potential cold seep area SW of South Georgia Island. The box-core is deployed vertically to the seafloor, where the box enters the soft sediment and takes a large sample of sediment. When the box-core is back on deck, the water on top of the sediment is carefully taken out with plastic tubes as to not disturb its surface where most of the small animals and the organic matter that has fallen from the water column to the seafloor is found. Ali and Rob sampled the box-core with plastic tubes, which they will use for analyses on sedimentation rates. The, Ana, Alex and Eva got their hands in the cold deep-sea mud to look for any animals. We found a few polychaetes (worms) and a little shell...but more specific results will need to wait until the laboratory analyses are made back at home!

Deep-water corals and long-line fisheries

The last 2 days of the cruise have been spent swathing and SHRIMPing over an area of deep-water corals between 1000 to 2000 m depth, close to Shag Rocks, 10 hours northwards from South Georgia Island. Alex was interested in surveying these deep-water coral communities, because the corals are caught as by-catch in the deep-water fisheries of the area.

We first conducted a swath survey to obtain good maps, and then deployed SHRIMP for 18 hours in two days. We saw beautiful gardens of deep-water brown gorgonians, white and delicate Stylasterine corals and a variety of other smaller yellow, orange and purple octocorals, together with sponges, bryozoans, yellow stalked crinoids (sea lilies) and sea echinoids (sea urchins). Sadly though, we also saw evidence of long-line fishing and even saw several borken long-lines that are used to fish toothfish. These studies are important as they provide the necessary information to then work with the fishing industry, governments and non-governmental organisations groups to develop management and conservation options.

Going home!

This has been a truly fantastic cruise! We look forward to coming back next year with the ROV Isis to survey the study sites in detail, map the habitats and collect samples of water, sediment and animals to describe the ecosystems and understand how they work.

As it is usual in all cruises, the Principal Scientist, Rob, organises a small end of cruise party, with a nice dinner prepared by our chef and cooks. Before dinner, we were delighted to read the winning poems of the poem competition that was held at the Twyford St Mary's School, Twyford, Winchester. We have been very happy that you have been following our expedition on the web and would like to thank all the kids for the lovely poems and drawings!

We hope that you will join us again next January for more exploration and investigations of chemosynthetic ecosystems south of the Polar Front!


Dave and Ian recovering the boxcore	Ana taking a core of sediment sampled from the boxcore into the lab	dark anoxic (without oxygen) and cold sediment collected by the boxcore
		eva_poem2.MP4
Rob and Ali cutting the plastic tube where they have their sediment sample	One of the samples that will be analysed for sedimentation rates in the laboratory with the tube of a deep-sea worm!	Alex and Ana preserving in alcohol some deep-water worms that were found in the mud, for molecular analyses in the lab.

Alex, Ana and Eva looking for animals in the cold deep-sea mud sampled by the boxcore	Eva reads the winning entry from our poetry competition (click on the Play icon to watch)

JR224: Chemosynthetic life in the Antarctic

JR224

Cruise diary

Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 February 2009
Location: South Georgia Island (54ºS - 37ºW)

Dave and Ian recovering the boxcore

Ana taking a core of sediment sampled from the boxcore into the lab

dark anoxic (without oxygen) and cold sediment collected by the boxcore

Rob and Ali cutting the plastic tube where they have their sediment sample

One of the samples that will be analysed for sedimentation rates in the laboratory with the tube of a deep-sea worm!

Alex and Ana preserving in alcohol some deep-water worms that were found in the mud, for molecular analyses in the lab.

Alex, Ana and Eva looking for animals in the cold deep-sea mud sampled by the boxcore

Eva reads the winning entry from our poetry competition (click on the Play icon to watch)

© NOCS 2009