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Litter recovered from the deep seafloor of the west Mediterranean (Eva Ramirez-Llodra, ICM-CSIS, Barcelona)
An international study conducted during the Census of Marine Life project SYNDEEP has concluded that human activities are increasingly affecting deep-sea habitats, resulting in the potential for biodiversity loss and, with this, the loss of many goods and services provided by deep-sea ecosystems.…
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The megacore being brought back on deck
Having joined the research cruise in Cork a few days ago I’ve been settling into my cabin, the new routine and the realisation that I will be away at sea for the next four weeks. A bit daunting if you’re a first-timer like me, but everyone has gone out of their way to explain everything and make us…
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Deployment of Bathysnap
Today, we have finally arrived on site, which meant it was time to deploy several exciting instruments. This might sound fairly straightforward but in reality it can be quite daunting to watch thousands of pounds worth of equipment being dropped over the side of the ship and the scientists rely on…
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Some to the VENTuRE team with the RV Celtic Explorer
New life forms filmed for upcoming National Geographic Channel series.The Irish-led VENTuRE scientific expedition aboard the national research vessel RV Celtic Explorer has discovered a previously uncharted field of hydrothermal vents along the mid-Atlantic ridge – the first to be explored north of…
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James Cook leaving picturesque Cork on Tuesday 2 August
On Monday, eight of us made our way from Aberdeen, Bristol, and Southampton to Cork, Ireland, in order to join the second leg of JC062. When we arrived at the port on Tuesday morning, the James Cook already awaited us eager to head back out to sea.While we were welcomed on board, it was time to say…
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Sulsa UAV
Engineers at the University of Southampton have designed and flown the world’s first ‘printed’ aircraft, which could revolutionise the economics of aircraft design.University and Natural Environment Research Council researchers and engineers at National Oceanography Centre, Southampton have been at…
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The megacorer
On Sunday morning we continued megacoring and recovered many samples. As soon as the cores were recovered on deck, the team got to work on their analysis.Kate Larkin writes for the blogCharlie Mainand her team are working on a sediment core incubation experiment which aims to examine how the…
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Henry Ruhl, Dave White, Brian Bett (NOC), Gordon Paterson (NHM) prepare the box corer for deployment
Today we deployed the US Naval Electronic Lab (USNEL) Box Corer which collects large samples of sediment from the seabed. The corer is lowered by wire into the sea and its design allows a free flow of water through the frame, which helps with a speedy descent.The weight of the corer carries it into…
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Dr Denise Smythe-Wright in her famous yellow gear sets to work on CTD samples
Late last night the team deployed a CTD and as soon as it had been recovered several hours later, we set to work collecting and analysing the samples. We are looking at the composition of the phytoplankton that lives in surface waters and how they might be influenced by climate change.These tiny…