Product Demonstration
Secrets of the deep ocean
- Data from the current survey will contribute to a long-term evidence base to evaluate potential recovery of damaged marine areas, with scientists projecting that stony coral may require many years to decades to form a replacement layer.
- Researchers anticipate using specific trip results to advocate for controlled, sustainable fishing practices to contain such activities and keep damage to seamounts at a minimum.
- While protected seamounts show no physical impacts from fishing over a 20-year period, there is currently little evidence that damaged coral matrices are reforming despite early signs of marine life return, such as urchins and anemones.
- The expedition plan involves navigating the craggy, uneven terrain of previously unexplored seabed areas that have experienced human contact, including operating a platform at depths of one thousand meters.
- Operational protocols dictate stopping the platform two meters above the seabed to prevent bouncing, while the team monitors for potential migration of larger fish, including sharks, between seamounts.
- The work is positioned as part of a wider effort to preserve marine habitats, with observations of thriving coral communities in areas previously considered unsuitable noted as significant despite existing gaps in data regarding the stony coral matrix.