Greenpeace Pole-to-Pole expedition – Azores 2019

Authors: Marina Carreiro-Silva, Manuela Ramos, Telmo Morato

Partners: Greenpeace Pole-to-Pole expedition, IMAR Instituto do Mar, the EU ATLAS and iAtlantic projects and the FRCT MapGES project.

Vessel: MV Esperanza

Chief scientist: Marina Carreiro-Silva

Scientific team: Telmo Morato, Manuela Ramos, and Marina Carreiro-Silva

The scientific deep-sea work conducted on board the “MV ESPERANZA” and using the ROV SEAEYE COUGAR-XT aimed to visit some previously unexplored seamounts in the Mid Atlantic Ridge (MAR). In some of these seamounts, 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, approximately 100 nm west of Horta harbour in Faial island. Sampling design for the benthic deep-sea work aimed to (i) map benthic communities inhabiting unexplored seamounts in the Mid Atlantic Ridge west of Faial Island with the Seaeye Cougar ROV, (ii) identify new areas that fit the FAO vulnerable marine ecosystems definition (or similar designations, e.g. APEIs); and (iii) to contribute with additional data to address patterns and drivers of the distribution of deep-sea benthic biodiversity in the Azores. The sampling design also allowed the collection of biological samples for taxonomy and genetic studies.