Dr. Liz Shea, Director of Collections and Curator of Mollusks at the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science, spent 14 days aboard the NOAA Ship Henry Bigelow with a team of scientists and engineers to sample deep-sea corals. Below are the daily updates from Dr. Anna Metaxas, professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada.
Watch the video of their dive from 7/30/2024.
30 July 2024
The last dive of the Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration was in Hydrographer Canyon on 30 July 2024. We saw some spectacular assemblages of bubble gum coral, very abundant carnivorous and other sponges, and the most octopus and squid we have seen on this cruise, including a glass squid. The topography was also impressive, with very steep walls on the east side of the canyon. We now head back to homeport in Newport, Rhode Island, from where we will disperse carrying many samples and much video for further analyses. Thank you all for following our adventure!
29 July 2024
On 29 July 2024, we were chased by a storm that came up into the Gulf of Maine. After our transboundary dive, the Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration headed to the Cape Cod Canal and crossed through to Buzzards Bay in Massachussetts. We then headed to Hydrographer Canon for our next dive on 30 July. Our scientists took this opportunity to catch up on their sleep a little to be ready for our last day of diving.
28 July 2024
On 28 July 2024, we did a transboundary dive for the Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration approximately 60 km south of Jordan Basin. We started the dive on the Canadian side of the border and ended it on the US side. On the Canadian side, there has been a lot of fishing activity on the features we were diving on. We say trawl marks and fishing gear. On the US side, we saw lines, a lobster trap and trawl marks. We saw mainly sponges, a lot of brachiopods, many colourful anemones but only a few Paramuricea. Many pollock followed us on the Canadian side of the border and many redfish, including gravid females, were resting on the seabed on the US side. We are expecting a bit of a storm tonight with some seas, so we will head towards Cape Cod Canal and out Hydrographer Canon for our next dive on 30 July.
27 July 2024
We did not dive today, July 26, for our Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration. But onboard measurements and experiments continue. The samples that have been collected with the remotely operated vehicle ROPOS must be sorted, documented and carefully preserved. Some samples are used to run physiological experiments on board that measure coral respiration under different temperatures. We will be back in the water on July 27, 2024.
26 July 2024
On July 25, we did our second dive in the Northeast Channel Coral Conservation Area during our Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration. We visited another location where we have been in 2001, 2006 and 2014 to measure changes in coral density and sizes as an effort to monitor the effectiveness of the closure. We also conducted a survey outside the boundary of the Conservation Area, where we found amazing coral near the boundary but quite a bit of gear line 2 km away.
25 July 2024
On 25 July 2024, we did our second dive in the Northeast Channel Coral Conservation Area during our Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration. We visited another location where we have been in 2001, 2006 and 2014 to measure changes in coral density and sizes as an effort to monitor the effectiveness of the closure. We also conducted a survey outside the boundary of the Conservation Area, where we found amazing coral near the boundary but quite a bit of gear line 2 km away.
24 July 2024
On 24 July 2024, we dove in the Northeast Channel Coral Conservation Area, a Canadian Marine Refuge during our Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration. We visited two locations where we have been in 2001, 2006 and 2014 to measure changes in coral density and sizes as an effort to monitor the effectiveness of the closure. We also took video of a rock we have been visiting repeatedly to measure coral growth. We had to fight strong currents, which are typical of this site.
23 July 2024
On 23 July 2024, we were back in US waters and diving in the Gulf of Maine, at the Border Bumps during our Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration. The dive was much shallower, 170-220 m depth and over mostly flat seabed with scattered outcrops and boulders. We saw a lot of sponges and sea stars and some beautiful anemones, but no coral. We were followed by a school of pollock for most of our dive.
22 July 2024
For our Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration, on 22 July 2024, we dove in Corsair Canyon in Canadian waters. We had yet another spectacular dive along the western canyon wall, the densest, most luxuriant forests of the bubblegum coral Paragorgia of all sizes, many of them huge, at around 860 m depth. None of us have ever seen such dense forests before. Corsair Canyon continues to amaze and earn its status as a Marine Refuge in Canada.
21 July 2024
As part of our Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration, on 21 July, we dove in Heezen Canyon. We had a spectacular dive along the canyon walls which had spectacular features such as steep walls with luxuriant, very large colonies of the bubblegum coral Paragorgia, some up to 2 m in width and height. Colonies of such size can be several centuries old. There were also long overhangs teaming with stony and soft corals and sponges of all types. Here, we saw the largest number of squid thus far and quite a few octopus. Heezen Canyon is a spectacular canyon with high diversity and impressive coral. Truly a gem that deserves protection.
20 July 2024
As part of our Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration, on 20 July, we dove in Gilbert Canyon, one of the three canyons that fall within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument. Today our dive was dedicated to Dr. Kim Juniper, a long-standing colleague and friend. We were able to participate with our live feed in Kim’s celebration of life by broadcasting from the deep sea, which he studied during almost his entire amazing research career. We dove following a transect along the canyon walls and discovered extensive fields of the coral Paramuricea and the stony coral Desmophyllum.
19 July 2024
As part of our Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration, on 19 July, we dove in Oceanographer Canyon, one of the three canyons that fall within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument. We dove along a transect originally done by the Okeanos Explorer in 2013 to measure any changes in the deep-water coral populations. This is how we can monitor the effectiveness of conservation actions. We found beautiful fields of the corals Paramuricea and Thouarella and a spectacular wall full of the bubble gum coral Paragorgia, with some colonies estimated to be 100s of years old based on their size.
18 July 2024
The next 14 days, 9 scientists, 6 ROPOS engineers, and NOAA crew will be at sea together on the NOAA Ship Henry Bigelow looking for and sampling deep-sea corals in the Atlantic Canyons and Gulf of Maine. Follow along as we highlight our work each day. Why do we call ourselves #CROCHET? Not because we are crafty, but because this cruise is part of the Challenger 150 collaboration, and we needed a name! Cross Border Coral Habitat Exploration describes our activities, and we found an acronym buried within to make it work. This is the 4th time US and Canadian scientists led by Martha Nizinski and Anna Metaxas have collaborated on exploring the canyons, channels, gulfs and basins along the northeast continental shelf and shelf break.
