ADSR - Azores Deep-Sea Research

CRUISES / Greenpeace 2019

Greenpeace Pole-to-Pole expedition: Azores 2019

Summary Show more ↓

Greenpeace invited deep-sea scientists from IMAR Instituto do Mar and Okeanos University of the Azores to join the Greenpeace Pole-to-Pole expedition – an almost year-long voyage from the Arctic to the Antarctic to highlight the many threats oceans are facing, and to campaign for a Global Ocean Treaty covering all seas outside of national waters. While in the Azores, we aimed to visit some previously unexplored seamounts in the Mid Atlantic Ridge (MAR) where there was strong evidence of the presence of large aggregations of the bubble gum coral Paragorgia johnsoni and other Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem (VME) indicator taxa. These areas were located around the Cavala seamount area, approximately 100 nm west of Horta harbour in Faial island.

Statistics

Transits

420 km

Multibeam Bathymetry

0 km²

Filmed Seabed

1 km

Visited Areas

Stations

Dives

Video Footage Recorded

2.5 hours

Used Storage

0.04 Tb

Samples

No information available at this moment

Highlights

Due to several problems with the ROV, the bottom time was quite limited to about 1:40 hours in Beta and 00:50 hours in Cavala. Also, the distance covered was very small and we were only able to sample a limited area in the valley between the two peaks of the Cavala seamount.
Beta seamount revealed sparse occurrences of large bubble gum coral (Paragorgia johnsoni) and a “new” type of sponge aggregations composed of several Rossellidae (cf. Asconema) individuals. In Beta seamount, as in many other areas of the MAR, diverse multispecies coral gardens were observed.
In Cavala seamount, we confirmed the presence of aggregations of the bubble gum coral Paragorgia johnsoni, however, its extent and densities were impossible to verify. Cavala also revealed a very diverse cold-water coral garden composed of large colonies of Paramuricea sp. with Paragorgia johnsoni, and several species of soft corals, including many Anthomastus sp. We also observed a diverse sponge field composed of some massive sponges (cf. Characella pachastrelloides, Phakelia robusta) and cf. Poecillastra compressa and many incrusting sponges.
These two seamounts seem to host very diverse benthic communities and large colonies of bubble gum coral, suggesting that the distribution of this Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem indicator taxa may be more widespread than previously thought.