We reached our first sampling station last night Pedra seamount , after testing the cameras in shallower water and had a successful tow from the peak of Pedra Branca to the base and then out on the flat at about metres.
The next couple of camera transects did not go as well with some technical issues arising as a result of a knock against the side of the ship as the camera sled was retrieved in the sizeable swell. Protecting delicate high-end technology as it dangles at the end of wire cables with tons of metal in the vicinity, or even worse as it is dragged across the seafloor thousands of metres behind the vessel is a perpetual challenge with sampling the deep ocean.
The delays in camera operations meant that we had time to carry out a beam trawl to collect invertebrates from the seafloor at m depth, enough to keep the taxonomists busy for a little while. We ended the day with a successful camera transect down a small seamount Z16 which peaks at m. Excellent imagery and excitement as the top of the seamount came into view with a dense cover of deep-sea corals and associated animals and some fish including orange roughy. We towed down the flank with the coral thickets thinning at m and disappearing by the time we reached the seafloor at m.
We save what was perhaps the most exciting part of the day until the last as we noticed a small ridge rising to m from the seafloor and only a kilometre away from the base of the seamount.
Would this small ridge support deep-sea corals? It is too dangerous to tow the camera up any decent incline too much chance of it getting stuck under a ledge , so we raised it to m steamed to ridge and flew it down to the peak. Imagine our excitement when a dense cover of deep-sea coral came into view. It was a satisfying end to our shift and answered one question that we had: do deep-sea coral communities in this area extend beyond the seamounts?
Now we just need to know by how much. It's lucky that we have another camera tows ahead of us — that is if we can keep the gear working. Voyage date:. Saturday, November 24, More information about text formats.
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There is a broad size distribution for seamounts but to be classified as a seamount, the feature must have a vertical relief of at least 1, meters 3, feet above the surrounding seafloor.
Seamounts are found in every world ocean basin and while it is not known precisely how many seamounts there are, they are very numerous. Based on data from satellite altimetry and bathymetric mapping data obtained from survey ships, the number of seamounts that are at least 1, meters high is thought to be greater than ,
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