credit: Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Cruise title: Northeast Pacific Deep-sea Expedition
Lead PIs: Cherisse Du Preez, Chelsea Stanley, Tammy Norgard.
Partners: Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Council of the Haida Nation, the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, the Paacheedaht and Quatsino First Nations, and Ocean Networks Canada
Location: Northeast Pacific Ocean
Dates: 26 May 2023
Join us and share the joy of discovery as we explore the world-renowned deep sea offshore of the Pacific Northwest! Ancient underwater volcanoes, bubbling methane seeps, and superheated hydrothermal vents are deep-sea oases, home to an incredible diversity of life, including endemic animals found nowhere else on Earth.
Our mission is to study uncharted areas and their inhabitants, providing science to support conservation decisions, including those to help establish the proposed vent and seamount Tang.ɢ̲wan · ḥačxʷiqak · Tsig̱is Marine Protected Area.
We’ll be working with ~40 ship- and shore-based partners to accomplish an ambitious science plan, with highlights including
- Returning to Explorer Ridge hydrothermal vents after 20 years—the least well-known of the Juan de Fuca Ridge vents and the northernmost range of the vent chemosynthetic animals in the region;
- Searching for potential cold seeps below the >1 km tall “blow out” and “megavents” flares discovered and mapped last year;
- Returning to the supervolcano, Explorer Seamount, to resurvey (and establish new) long-term monitoring sites;
- Mapping and sampling the newly discovered deep-sea nursery ground on the summit of Tuzo Wilson Seamount.
This is a Northeast Pacific Deep-sea Exploration Project (NEPDEP) expedition. To stay in the loop, follow @nepdep_ #nepdep and watch the live stream at Northeast Pacific Deep-sea Expedition and Facebook live.
