In this close-up view of a ‘typical’ mussel community, you can see a variety of organisms including mussels, shrimp, sea anemones... just to name a few.
These deepwater mussel aggregations are another example of chemosynthetic communities that scientists onboard the Ron Brown are trying to better understand during this 33-day expedition.
In this accelerated video, you can see a typical mussel pot collection. The inside of the pot is lined with open mesh netting. The Jason’s manipulator arm lowers the pot overtop of the selected target. The arm’s rotation causes pot to spin and effectively cinches closed the net opening. The mussel pot is carefully removed from the seafloor and placed back on the ROV basket.
Like all of the other samples collected during dive, scientists will be anxiously awaiting the mussel pots return to the surface. As soon as the ROV is landed on deck and it is safe to approach, scientists will gather up all of the samples quickly transport them back into the bio lab for initial processing. Final processing will occur back onshore after the cruise. Video courtesy of Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007, NOAA-OE.
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Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007
