WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.543 We're setting out to explore the Gulf of Alaska, unknown or 00:00:04.543 --> 00:00:08.383 poorly known parts throughout the entire gulf. My name is 00:00:08.383 --> 00:00:10.863 Merlin Best. I'm a biologist with Fisheries and Ocean 00:00:10.863 --> 00:00:14.623 Canada. I work out of the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, BC, 00:00:14.623 --> 00:00:17.903 on Vancouver Island and I'm the biology lead on this 00:00:17.903 --> 00:00:22.063 expedition. Exploration is important because without it, 00:00:22.063 --> 00:00:25.023 we wouldn't really know much of anything. My name is Jamie 00:00:25.023 --> 00:00:28.543 Conrad. I'm a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in 00:00:28.543 --> 00:00:32.123 Santa Cruz, at their Pacific Coastal and Marine Science 00:00:32.123 --> 00:00:37.883 Center. I am the geology lead. So starting out near Kodiak 00:00:37.883 --> 00:00:41.723 Island and then exploring seamounts heading east out towards 00:00:41.723 --> 00:00:44.683 basically the other side of the gulf and then coming along 00:00:44.683 --> 00:00:48.843 northwest and back to close to where we started. I think the 00:00:48.843 --> 00:00:51.403 major challenge is going to be weather. We have a number of 00:00:51.403 --> 00:00:54.043 storms that are kind of converging across the Gulf of 00:00:54.043 --> 00:00:57.323 Alaska. So we're going to try to remain flexible, try to stay 00:00:57.323 --> 00:01:00.123 a step ahead and try to give ourselves the best 00:01:00.123 --> 00:01:04.743 opportunities to dive. Seamounts kind of provide this 00:01:04.743 --> 00:01:08.663 really important relief point along the flat abyssal plain 00:01:08.663 --> 00:01:11.143 and so every time you get something that's a little bit 00:01:11.143 --> 00:01:14.823 different and different kind of water currents and rocky 00:01:14.823 --> 00:01:18.743 substrate you can have really cool ecosystems, really high in 00:01:18.743 --> 00:01:23.783 biodiversity. So lots of coral, sponges; we were seeing mats of 00:01:23.783 --> 00:01:27.623 brittle stars, sea stars eating the brittle stars, and so on up 00:01:27.623 --> 00:01:32.703 the food chain. We're seeing the geology of the sea floor. 00:01:32.703 --> 00:01:37.903 We're seeing faults. We're seeing the context for the 00:01:37.903 --> 00:01:42.703 habitats that all these creatures are living on. I came 00:01:42.703 --> 00:01:46.223 back from a break and the ROV had settled down and was 00:01:46.223 --> 00:01:49.743 looking at this kind of golden colored thing that was 00:01:49.743 --> 00:01:54.063 encrusting a rock. I think it's important more so that it just 00:01:54.063 --> 00:01:57.343 captured the minds of of people around the world. Things like 00:01:57.343 --> 00:01:59.903 that, getting people engaged, getting people involved and 00:01:59.903 --> 00:02:02.383 hopefully they follow along as we continue to find new 00:02:02.383 --> 00:02:05.183 discoveries. The odds of finding something completely 00:02:05.183 --> 00:02:08.063 new to science are are pretty high and it happens pretty 00:02:08.063 --> 00:02:13.503 often. We got kind of pushed out of the Gulf of Alaska due 00:02:13.503 --> 00:02:19.223 to poor weather. We're able to make the most of it by going 00:02:19.223 --> 00:02:24.423 inside and doing some dives within the fjords. We were able 00:02:24.423 --> 00:02:28.423 to climb this basically vertical wall feature 500 00:02:28.423 --> 00:02:34.903 meters below us and saw some really amazing stuff. We saw 00:02:34.903 --> 00:02:40.243 four or five giant Pacific octopus. Once we got to the 00:02:40.243 --> 00:02:43.763 Eastern Gulf off of the Alexander Archipelago, we saw 00:02:43.763 --> 00:02:47.683 these really dense forests of Pacific Red Tree Coral, Primnoa, 00:02:47.683 --> 00:02:50.803 at a density that I've never seen before supporting all 00:02:50.803 --> 00:02:54.003 different kinds of life. 00:02:55.723 --> 00:03:04.943 I believe this is the deep-sea octopus, Graneledone boreopacifica. This really rarely 00:03:04.943 --> 00:03:09.343 seen process happening. We're diving on a seat off of Chatham 00:03:09.343 --> 00:03:13.983 Strait, about 32 miles-ish off of the mainland of Alaska. 00:03:13.983 --> 00:03:17.983 We saw an incredible amount of bubbles and this very diverse 00:03:17.983 --> 00:03:22.783 chemosynthetic community. Geologists mostly have been 00:03:22.783 --> 00:03:27.103 able to explore the seafloor using remote means. Rarely do 00:03:27.103 --> 00:03:30.283 they get the chance to put their eyes on the seafloor and 00:03:30.283 --> 00:03:34.203 actually see what's there and see the context of the geology, 00:03:34.203 --> 00:03:39.003 see the faults, the rocks, the seeps, the landslides as they 00:03:39.003 --> 00:03:43.243 are. We've been bouncing kind of between different areas trying 00:03:43.243 --> 00:03:46.763 to stay one step ahead of the storms and hopefully in doing 00:03:46.763 --> 00:03:50.763 so we're able to get a couple more good dives in 00:03:55.723 --> 00:03:59.743 Yeah, we're looking at what they call the glacial flour, 00:03:59.743 --> 00:04:04.863 which is really just finely ground rock. 00:04:06.223 --> 00:04:10.003 I think exploration like this is crucial to helping us better 00:04:10.003 --> 00:04:13.603 manage our marine habitats and fisheries. If we don't know 00:04:13.603 --> 00:04:16.963 what's down there, if we can only if we've only been kind of 00:04:16.963 --> 00:04:19.683 estimating or guessing, then we don't know what we could be 00:04:19.683 --> 00:04:22.203 losing. The more that we know the more that we can 00:04:22.203 --> 00:04:26.243 effectively manage, you know, human activities in the ocean. 00:04:26.243 --> 00:04:30.003 Just having the the baseline knowledge for what's out there 00:04:30.003 --> 00:04:34.563 gives geologist that worry about geological hazards an 00:04:34.563 --> 00:04:39.483 idea of what areas are prone to submarine landslides, how often 00:04:39.483 --> 00:04:43.783 faults might break and create big earthquakes, things like 00:04:43.783 --> 00:04:49.523 that. Pretty shocked with the amount of work that we've been 00:04:49.523 --> 00:04:54.083 able to do. The team aboard has been wonderful. Everybody's 00:04:54.083 --> 00:04:57.123 kind of rallying behind the mission to get in the water as 00:04:57.123 --> 00:05:01.843 much as possible and do as much exploration as we can.