Follow along as participants in the cruise provide updates and reflections on their experiences, the science, the technology, and other elements of the expedition.
October 1, 2012 | By Terry Connell
The crew on the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster is well trained and quite accommodating. This is their home, but they make you feel like it is yours, too. There's a spirit of cooperation and hospitality here that permeates everything.
Read moreSeptember 30, 2012 | By Esprit Heestand Saucier
One of the things that I find captivating about the ocean is the idea that I’m standing (or in a boat floating) on the roof of another world.
Read moreSeptember 29, 2012 | By Terry Connell
For this mission, we are operating approximately 60 miles off the east coast of Virginia exploring the deep waters of the Norfolk Canyon. The kind of wildlife I expected to see at this location is the kind that lives in the ocean.
Read moreSeptember 28, 2012 | By Kirstin Meyer
Imagine getting in your car and driving to the beach, but instead of stopping to gaze at the ocean, you keep driving straight into it. You drive across the sloping continental shelf, down the steep continental slope, all the way to the flat plains at the very bottom of the ocean. What would you see along the way?
Read moreSeptember 27, 2012 | By Jack Irion
Why is the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) interested in shipwrecks off the Virginia Coast?
Read moreSeptember 26, 2012 | By Rod Mather
As an archaeologist, finding a shipwreck is often a process rather than an event. When can you say you have found it?
Read moreSeptember 25, 2012 | By Amanda Demopoulos
We have had a very successful Leg 3, examining shipwrecks and canyon biology in Norfolk Canyon. For me, our productive sampling in Norfolk Canyon directly complements Leg 1 studies in Baltimore Canyon, facilitating direct comparisons of the benthic communities found between canyons.
Read moreSeptember 24, 2012 | By Terry Connell
The morning Kraken II remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployment was picture perfect. The crew of the ROV spent hours carefully documenting another of the ships sunk during the Billy Mitchell air bombing experiments. The ROV monitor showed a steady stream of incredible images of the wreck.
Read moreSeptember 23, 2012 | By Rod Mather
Although weather and technical problems have worked against us this leg, the crew of NOAA Ship Nancy Foster has miraculously managed to put us back close to our original schedule. As a result, we have some notable successes to report.
Read moreSeptember 22, 2012 | By Terry Connell
The rough start to this mission due to weather and issues with equipment that had delayed the science work by several days were seemingly behind us.
Read moreSeptember 21, 2012 | By Terry Connell
Despite a late start to the day due to winch issues, yesterday was our first successful remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dive. No shipwreck was found on this shallow-water dive, which mostly served to get the Kraken II ROV back in the water to work out any kinks. After bringing the ROV back on board, preparations were made for the night operations. On the schedule: Trawling.
Read moreSeptember 20, 2012 | By Terry Connell
Scientific gold, perhaps! I am sitting here in the "wet lab" of the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster. It is 8 AM on Thursday morning. We have been on this mission for three full days now and have barely begun the science because of the weather.
Read moreSeptember 19, 2012 | By Rod Mather
Leg 3 of Continental Shelf Associates’ “Mid-Atlantic Deepwater Canyons“ study, supported by NOAA and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), got underway on September 17.
Read moreSeptember 13, 2012 | By Sandra Brooke and Steve W. Ross
The objective of our dive in Baltimore Canyon was to return to a flat plateau we had seen previously, which had dense colonies of Paramuricea, a target species for our octocoral geneticist, Dr. Scott France.
Read moreSeptember 12, 2012 | By Steve W. Ross and Sandra Brooke
Today is our last dive in Baltimore Canyon and the next to last dive of this cruise leg.
Read moreSeptember 11, 2012 | By Sandra Brooke
Stony corals come in many shapes and sizes, from branching colonies that can form massive reefs, to tiny solitary or ‘cup’ corals that are only a few millimeters across.
Read moreSeptember 10, 2012 | By Scott France
Somewhere in France locked up in a vault is a golf ball size block of metal - more specifically an alloy of platinum-iridium –that weighs* 1 kilogram (kg). Exactly 1 kg. In fact, it is the world standard for 1 kg. If there is a question about the accuracy of a scale, such as the one in your bathroom, use of this block would be the ultimate form of calibration: it is 1 kg and so a scale must be adjusted to match this weight.
Read moreSeptember 7, 2012 | By Christina Kellogg
From the perspective of a bacterium, each coral colony is a microbial world, with different landscapes and communities...
Read moreSeptember 5, 2012 | By Steve W. Ross and Sandra Brooke
Actually, in terms of sea conditions, our second leg of this Deepwater Canyons expedition started with calm seas and light winds. Hurricane Leslie had other plans...
Read moreBy Steve W. Ross and Sandra Brooke
Overall, the first leg was a great success; we accomplished 11 ROV dives and over 150 stations from other operations (CTD casts, box cores, mono-cores).
Read moreAugust 27, 2012 | By Steve W. Ross
The view available from the ROV cameras of the living fishes in their habitats is a unique perspective and provides invaluable information.
Read moreAugust 26, 2012 | By Sandra Brooke and Steve W. Ross
In the early 1980’s Dr. Barbara Hecker was lead scientist on an exploration cruise in Baltimore Canyon, using a towed camera to survey the seafloor. She made an interesting discovery!
Read moreAugust 24, 2012 | By Sandra Brooke
We have seen some amazing things in the past few ROV dives including a bubblegum coral that was almost 15 feet tall, and patches of carnivorous brittlestars that were buried in the mud with their arms in the air ready to capture small squid and fish that come within their grasp.
Read moreAugust 23, 2012 | By Dr. Furu Mienis
Deepwater canyons, the rivers of the ocean, transport and redistribute sediments.
Read moreAugust 22, 2012 | By Craig Robertson
Craig Robertson, a Ph.D. candidate from Bangor University in the United Kingdom, carries out his doctoral studies project during this cruise. Discover what Craig is hoping to accomplish!
Read moreAugust 21, 2012 | By Katharine Coykendall
Studying genetic connectivity in deep sea communities is important from a management and conservation perspective.
Read moreAugust 20, 2012 | By Dr. Gerard Duineveld
In recent times canyons can act as important pathways for transport of particles from continental shelves to deeper waters and the deep-sea.
Read moreAugust 18, 2012 | By Steve W. Ross
The ROV was loaded with seven tubes (quivers) to hold samples, a biobox with three chambers to keep collections cold, a coral holder, two water sampling bottles (Niskins), an instrument to measure water properties every second, two digital still cameras, and one high definition video camera.
Read moreAugust 17, 2012 | By Sandra Brooke
Our first real day of work at sea began in the early hours of this morning when we arrived at Norfolk canyon on a beautiful calm summer day. Our goals were to deploy two benthic landers (owned by our Dutch partners at NIOZ) and a mooring (owned by USGS) at different locations within the canyon axis. We deployed the first lander at the deeper end of the canyon at just over 1300m depth.
Read moreAugust 16, 2012 | By Christina Kellogg
I’ve heard people describe corals (especially the branchy ones) as ‘ecosystem architects’ – meaning that the corals create all kinds of habitats for other creatures – places to attach and hang into the current, little hidey holes inside, etc. And that’s true. But the REAL ecosystem architects are the microbes.
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