The Hidden Ocean Arctic 2005
June 27 - July 26, 2005
In June/July 2005, an international team of 45 scientists from the United States, Canada, China and Russia will participate in a collaborative effort to explore the frigid depths of the Canada Basin, located in one of the deepest parts of the Arctic Ocean. This expedition is named "The Hidden Ocean" because this part of the Arctic Ocean is covered with sea ice for most of the year and thus difficult to reach. Therefore very little information is currently available about the diversity of life in this region of the world although this information is urgently needed to build a baseline of data to evaluate the impacts of changing environmental conditions, including warming and ice melt in the Arctic over the last four decades.
Operating from the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy and funded by NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration, scientists will examine the hidden world of life in these extreme conditions with the aid of divers, photographic platforms and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) specially designed to operate under ice and at great depth. More traditional techniques like ice coring, plankton nets and bottom trawls will support these efforts. Due to the Canada Basin's remote location, it is possible scientists will encounter never before seen life forms.
The scientific sampling approach will cover the microscopic organisms found in the sea ice (sea ice biota) and in the sea water (mainly phytoplankton), as well as larger animals in the sea water (zooplankton) and at the sea floor (zoobenthos). The studies will try to understand linkages that exist between ice, water and sea floor in this harsh environment from the surface of the ice to the bottom of the deep sea.
Updates & Logs
Click images or links below for detailed mission logs.
Includes slide show and audio messages.