21st-century explorers

A UVic research team helps pioneer the next generation of scientific ocean expeditions

  

by Krista Zala

The remotely operated vehicle lands on the seafloor with a gentle thud. As its camera slowly swings around, we see a black basalt floor stretching into the darkness. Hundreds of metres above, a ship bobs in the waters off Indonesia as its control room bustles with activity. When the first creature pops into view, a voice chimes in.

"Hey, Santiago, I win. It's crinoids first," says University of Victoria researcher Dr. Verena Tunnicliffe. But she's not in the control room—she's not even talking to anyone there. Tunnicliffe, the Canada Research Chair in Deep Ocean Research at the University of Victoria, is in a lab at UVic and is talking to a coral expert at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

Welcome to the next generation of scientific cruises, where the sights of the seafloor are beamed from the remotely operated vehicle's camera, to the ship, and then to shore stations around the world via satellite. Just two scientists are on the ship. The rest are "telepresent"—watching and contributing from their stations across North America and Indonesia. All their suggestions are beamed back to John Sherrin, the scientific coordinator on board.

"Everything's buzzing," says Sherrin, a graduate student in UVic's School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, who is researching hot vents on active marine volcanoes. "The pilots ask what we're looking at, and when I ask people on shore, I immediately get answers."

Telepresence opens new realms for scientific expeditions. Researchers and students can join for a few hours or days rather than having to commit to weeks at sea. When an unusual species comes into view, a scientist grabs a frame from the streaming video and sends it to a specialist who responds within hours, often within the same dive.

"We went only to areas that no one has seen before," says Sherrin. Each dive over the three weeks revealed more marine marvels: lumpy angler fish, delicate sea spiders, massive barrel sponges and slender, long-armed relatives of sea stars called crinoids. Corals abounded, too, often with crinoids clinging to them, much to the delight of Tunnicliffe and UVic undergraduate Dustin Schornagel, who is studying these animals.

The cruise had its challenges. The charts for the area were so outdated that the crew mapped the seafloor by night and used their newly made charts for the next day's dive. And the time difference meant that each dive finished around 2 a.m. for observers on the West Coast.

But considering the thousands of details to accommodate—the convoluted permits, finicky telecommunications and unpredictable weather—the cruise was a success. It mapped new hydrothermal regions, discovered new species, and set the stage for future expeditions.

"Being able to explore the unknown and share in the discovery of amazing new habitats and creatures with people around the world is an experience I'll never forget," says Sherrin.

"The whole operation is brand new," says Tunnicliffe. "It is a wonderful way to bring the deep sea to students at UVic and around the world."

PDF not available.