Hello everyone!

Unfortunately for the Deep-Sea Benefits project, the seas were too rough to safely work as Hurricane Francine passed to our west. We are all thinking about those who will be impacted by the storm. Fortunately for us, we have been in port in Pensacola to wait out the storm’s passage. All going according to our contingency plan, we’ll be back out in the open Gulf of Mexico on Friday to continue our work.

Caption: The R/V Point Sur shelters at Plaza de Luna Square, Pensacola, to dodge rough seas caused by Hurricane Francine. 

Perhaps this pause in the fast paced, day and night, on-and-off action of instrument and net deployments and acoustics surveys is a good time to take a step back and discuss the Deep-Sea Benefits project with respect to broader restoration activities taking place throughout the Gulf of Mexico. My name is Ian Zink, and I work for the NOAA Fisheries Deepwater Horizon Restoration Program.

NOAA works with our partners to implement projects to restore natural resources injured as a result of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill that took place in 2010. Some restoration is fairly straight forward—like building marsh habitat to address injuries to coastal wetlands, and injuries to the fishes and invertebrates that rely on these habitats. A good example of this would be the Upper Barataria Marsh Creation project, which was recently completed in Louisiana.

However, some ecological processes in the Gulf of Mexico are less understood, meaning our ability to restore for them is not so straight-forward. The Deepwater Horizon restoration plan recognizes this, and thus places a strong emphasis on Monitoring and Adaptive Management. Monitoring is data-gathering that helps us assess the outcomes of restoration actions and inform future restoration activities.

The Deep-Sea Benefits project is using monitoring to gather information that will increase our understanding of ecological interactions among fish and water column invertebrates, sea turtles, marine mammals, and mesophotic and deep benthic communities. This information can be used to design restoration actions and calculate the benefits from other restoration activities. For example, the information collected by Deep-Sea Benefits will be incorporated into the Active Management and Protection project activities, including informing other agencies responsible for protecting Gulf of Mexico benthic habitat and resources about these protections. It will also help protect mesopelagic fish and invertebrate communities situated in the water column above them, thus contributing to protecting water column productivity—which helps support sea turtles, marine mammals, and mesophotic and deep benthic community productivity. These protections would also lead to conservation of the biodiversity inherent to these locations. The Deep-Sea Benefits project is layered—both figuratively and literally—on top of other restoration actions being taken to help restore for the injuries from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

What do we do when a storm heads our way?  We head east! 

We have arrived to our next super station, Desoto Canyon, and are currently conducting acoustic transects before we do our next MOCNESS tows.  We have gotten word that due to the deteriorating weather conditions, we will not be dropping nets in the water today and after the acoustic transects are completed (later tonight), we will be tucking into Pensacola, FL for a night or two to let the weather pass before we head back out here.

Photos:  View from galley porthole; Kevin working with his acoustic data

If you think we are bored with no nets to sort, the answer is.... we aren't!  We have plenty of data entry to complete, students are using the time to work on their projects which includes reading scientific articles, statistical analysis and 3D modeling.  Some of us have even found some time for working out!

Photo: Part of the DEEPEND team working in the lounge

So, we are safe and sound, well-fed (it was Taco Tuesday today for lunch) and continuing to work away!

Hey everyone! My name is Sidney Trimble, and I am a masters student in Dr. Zan Milligan’s lab where I am also the lab manager. My thesis is estimating the carbon flux of a Hatchetfish called Argyropelecus aculeatus. These little guys eat a large amount of prey and exhibit diel vertical migration (DVM) so they may play a large role within the biological carbon pump (BCP).

Photos:  Sidney at graduation; a Hatchetfish specimen she will be working with for her MS project.

This is my first time on a research vessel, and I am so excited to be here on the Deep Sea Benefits cruise. My role on the ship has been working alongside Juliet Tretler and April Cook in managing the cruise database, processing samples, weighing and measuring specimens after identification.

Photos:  A couple of specimens collected so far:  juvenile anglerfish (female); pelagic nudibrach

We have just finished our night trawl at Viosca Knoll consisting of many Cyclothone, crustaceans, a nudibranch, my thesis study fish as well as various other hatchetfish, large pyrosomas, a juvenile female angler fish and many many more cool finds! It’s almost the beginning of day 3 and I am very excited to see what we find at our third site and learn much more from this amazing team of scientists! 

I’m Juliet Tretler, a graduate student at Nova Southeastern University on my first ever deep sea cruise. I’ve worked with Dr. Tracey Sutton on processing and cataloging samples from previous DEEPEND cruises for the past year, so I was eager to go to sea and see fresh samples of some of the fish I’ve helped preserve.

Today is our second day at Viosca Knoll, and early this morning (1am) our first night time net came up. All of us are falling into a rhythm now with our assigned roles and things are moving smoothly! Myself and another graduate student, Sidney Trimble, have been managing the database of our specimens, measuring, weighing, and logging fish as they are identified.

This morning we caught some Argyropelecus aculeatus, the subject of Sidney’s thesis, but I’m hoping we find some Stromateoids soon! This is a suborder containing medusafishes and driftfishes, which are associated with siphonophores and flotsam.  My thesis work focuses on the abundance and distribution of fishes from the suborder Stromateoidei in the Gulf of Mexico, and their relevance as prey items for large pelagic fishes like tuna and sharks. Historically Stromateoids were not considered major players among mesopelagic fishes, but the advent of projects like DEEPEND have shown that we have likely vastly underestimated their numbers.  T

his first Deep Sea Benefits cruise has already been a learning experience for all of us, and I feel so lucky to be part of this group of scientists! 

That’s all for now, thanks for reading!

Photos:  Sidney measuring a specimen; DEEPEND team sorting the catch.

Hi everyone!

We have arrived at our first station, Viosca Knoll! Yesterday was a busy day filled with assembling equipment and putting together the MOCNESS net (more on this in a later post) while at the dock and we headed out just after midnight after our safety briefing was completed by the captain.

            Photos:  Acoustic boom being lifted onto ship Friday; DEEPEND team at our muster station for a safety drill.

Today has been full of discussion, planning, and troubleshooting to make sure we are ready to go here at our first station.  The weather isn’t exactly cooperating as it’s very cloudy with occasional rain but a bit of a relief from the heat and humidity that usually is in place at this time of year out here. 

Photos: Weather forecast this afternoon; Sidney and April looking for small animals

The first nets have arrived on deck and everyone is getting used to their roles for processing the samples.  We should be finished with processing this trawl soon and we will take a nap until the next net comes up (around 1 am overnight).  We are excited to get this cruise underway!