michelle ridgway

Submarine Pilot Team!

Here is our team of Bering Sea Canyon Expedition Submarine Pilots: 

Kenneth Lowyck (Belgium), Michelle Ridgway (Alaska), John Hocevar (Texas), Timothy Marshall (California) and David Guggenheim (Washington, DC).

Whether diving together or collaborating on surface, these guys are excellent pilots and great to work with!   

 

SUBMARINE PILOTS

 We have completed 25 dives in Pribilof and Zhemchug Canyons, down to a maximum depth of 1,950 feet (about 325 fathoms, or over 650 meters).  Some dives were in tandem ... with two subs deployed together, and other dives were conducted solo -- one sub in the water at a time.  Individual dives have lasted nearly five hours from "hatch to hatch"!   

Canyon Fishes

Squid, Dall's Porpoise and Pacific Ocean Perch exhibit no apparent aversion to our submarine visits beneath the waves, but I wonder how other fishes respond to our presence.  A multitude of studies indicate that marine organisms -- from larval barnacles to great whales -- respond to underwater noise.  And, yes, some frequencies of sound cause fish to change their behavior as well.  Are we "noisy" underwater?   Quite simply, YES!  If you listen to our underwater tapes, you'll hear all the racket .... The submarines are basically a collection of motors, pumps and systems for communicating with surface.  Thrusters each have a high pitched whine, hydraulic motors and pumps for the manipulator arm, sonar transponders and the underwater telephone each put out various sounds into the briny deep. 

Whether these sounds are masked by sounds from ships overhead, by whales chattering away underwater, or other ambient noises in the sea, I cannot be certain.  Within a short range of the sub, I imagine that creatures detect some pretty peculiar sounds. 

Then there's the light.  In a relatively dark environment, the quartz, HMI, LED, flashing beacon, and interior lights from sonar screen, compass, computer screen, and other sources must illuminate the canyons in a manner rarely experienced by sea creatures. 

Rockfish

Intuitively, I must think that there are many fish and invertebrates that may keep their distance as we descend in the subs.  Nonetheless, we have been incredibly fortunate to observe quite a number of species in the canyons in situ for the first time.  Highlights of our fish observations thusfar include blob sculpin, grenadier, three species of red rockfish -- including many many juveniles, eelpouts, sablefish (blackcod), myctophid lampfish, prowfish, and several wonderful species of transluscent to rubbery bodied snailfishes! 

I'll continue posting fish findings as we extract photos from the underwater images.  The only fish we actually collected were "volunteers" ... Pacific Ocean Perch that somehow jammed themselves in between the submarine frame and batery pods and two myctophids that came up in the submarine collection baskets ... fortuitously caught during ascent.

Here's a rockfish with her boulder in Zhemchug Canyon.  Invertebrates on the boulder include a huge crinoid (top right), basket star (center), brachiopods (top center), seastars and several species of anenome.      

Boulder Habitat

   

 

Rapture of the Deep

So much goes through one's mind whilst sitting in the sub on deck in the wind, awaiting deployment at the next survey station.  Once the ship arrives at the targeted isobath, latitude and longitude, the sub support team swings into action.  Until then, we check and recheck life support systems, try to stay warm, and imagine what creatures lie beneath the steely blue sea surface.  A great book given to me by a very dear friend provides good fodder for the imagination ....

Infusing images from Ray Troll's Rapture of the Deep into my mind's eye prior to exploring the depths of Zhemchug Canyon provided great entertainment for the long descent through the water column.  Ratfish Ray's viscious fishes and portraits of nautiloids, trilobites, viperfish, jellyfish and other organisms in marine evolutionary history wrench open one's thoughts as to what exactly we might encounter in the abyss.  And then we take the plunge ... only to discover the truly bizarre myriad plants, animals and those in between that exact their existence from these cold dark water habitats just below the arctic circle.  Crinoids, asteroids, amphipods, cephalopods ... fantastic! 

Predive Reading

Porpoise Escort into the Abyss

Launch Time = 0921  August 9 2007   Location:  Zhemchug Canyon (N 58.36.2701  W 174 15.2287)

The Nuytco Crew closed my hatch on Deepworker 7 at just after 8 am.  A damp, chilling autumnal breeze was still blowing but seas laid down considerably.  Diek put us on station at the north rim of Zhemchug Canyon in waters just over 500 meters deep. 

Hettie set me into the water first, allowing me some time to manuever around on the surface.  Almost immediately,  several high -speed black and white mammals zipped by in front of my viewing dome!  When making headway under thrusters in choppy water, our field of view rocks from underwater to wave crests to just above surface. So I was able to see the two dozen or so

Deep Worker with Dall's Porpoise

Dall's porpoise ripping across the surface, then circling around me just a few meters below surface.  Weeha !  Once deployed, David and I moved toward one another for descent, watching in awe as now dozens of porpoise dazzled us with their elegant, swift swimming skills and remarkable beauty. 

I engaged my manipulator arm to orient my high definition video camera toward David, and proceeded to film him surrounded by the pod.  As I descended some 50 feet below him, many a curious porpoise swam down and rolled slightly sideways just an arms length from my dome.

WHAT WERE THEY DOING?  Tilting an eye for a better view?  Showing off their flashy streamlined torso?  Trying to communicate some cetacean message to through my titanium and acrylic pilot pod? I cannot say what was in the minds of these creatures, but they certainly seemed captivated by our shiny human shells.

Just past the 300 foot depth level, I looked up into dim surface light to see torpedo-shaped sillhouettes swimming near surface.  One at a time, they tipped their heads downward and with the most powerful, graceful flexing of their entire trunk, they rocketed straight toward me.  With one quick whip turn past me their visit ended without so much as a pause at depth. 

Not long after the porpoise visits ceased, I heard news that my human companion was also departing.  We had entered the squid zone --- with hundreds of feisty cephalopods darting at the subs from every direction.  I made it through the layer unscathed ... except that one attacker left the front of my dome without one its eight legs .... a single squid leg remained attached to my dome by its suckers for my entire dive.

David did not fare so well running the squid gauntlet.  Apparently he took squid into his vertical thruster and jammed it or blew a fuse.  At just a few hundred feet down, he reported the condition to topside and was ordered to surface for retrieval. Topside navigators issued me a most welcome "proceed to bottom solo" order, so into the abyss I continued. 

Billions of brittlestars awaited me on the familiar silty seafloor upon landing at 1,737 feet. Swift slope currents carried ditritus was apparently the quarry of these tiny stars, as most had their tentacle-like, bristly arms extended up from their anchorages to harvest the organic material coming their way.  

Strong currents nearly overwhelmed me in Deepworker 7 I was carried away from my landing location in just the time it took to report my life support system readings to topside.  Like so much flotsam, I, too was swept along in the current when not using full thrusters to maintain headway on my transect compass course.  

Orange Anenome

High currents create unique oases for marine life at such depths.  In this case fields of gravel, cobble and occaisonal boulders swept clean of silt and sand with nutrient loaded seawater flowing through provide the necessary attachment substrata for sessile organisms and shelter for mobile species like fish and crab.  Once in this rocky terrain, the tangerine realm of Zhemchug Canyon was unveiled.  I first caught sight of fields of brilliant mandarin - orange anenomes with tentacles wide open like so many blossoms.  Golden orange rockfish (Sebastes), asteroid stars, nudibranchs ('seaslugs'), hermit crabs, transluscent shrimp, seastars, plume worms, decorator crabs, corals, and even orange-hued sponges clustered on every bit of solid stone exposed.  

Bamboo coral polyps with brittlestar

I proceeded along my transect at a heading of roughly 030 to 360 degrees, but maintaining constant speed and trackline tough.  Using the large manipulator on Deepworker 7, I collected a few specimens of sponges, corals, and other organisms for which we needed taxonomic confirmation.

Some creatures seemed to carry on with their day, while others scurried for shelter or hovered a little closer to the shadows of coral branches as I approached. 

 

 

 

Baby Golden King Crab

Here are a few images of creature from the dive.  The tiny golden king crab came to surface inadvertently ... it was clinging deep within the orange sponge it lives on in situ.  This is yet another one of the wonderful species associations we have been able to observe and document in the Canyons.  Associates are species which have an interdependance for a phase of their life or their entire lives.  Researchers have found that these golden king crab are found with this sponge both in the Aleutian Islands and now we have seen evidence of a similar association in the Canyons.

 

 

Swiftia 7

   After over three hours surveying waters below 1,700 feet, my power system began to exhibit signs of drainage. Working in the currents, filming and collecting with the manipulator combined can draw batteries down moreso than a passive dive.  Whatever the cause, topside navigator requested that I return to surface and conserve energy where possible.  

No pilot ever wants to be called back to surface.  The exquisite and surreal world in the deep sea is so fascinating that none of us were ever anxious to leave. However, upon being called, there is no questioning topside orders, so with great reluctance, I activated vertical thrusters and began to ascend.  

Even with all lights, sonar, compass and manipulator off, progress toward surface was slow.  Out of concern for my power supply and pace of ascent, topside directed me to rise using my soft balast air tanks .... by injecting the tanks with high pressure air, I was able to achieve an ascent rate of about 100 feet every 45 seconds.  It was the first time any of us had used this procedure, so correcting air volumes as I ascended was a new experience.  Nuytco's attentive ops team monitored my progress, and I surfaced slightly buoyant, but without incident. 

During all of this, some familiar faces greeted me as I approached surface.  At about 250 feet down, several inquisitive Dall's Porpoise appeared.  They proceeded to frolic about the sub until I was recovered.  What an exhiliarating ride!  Being surrounded by a pod of wild and free Dall's Porpoise was at once humbling and inspiring.  I feel incredibly fortunate to visit their undersea world.   

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Coral Quest ... Preparing to Dive Now!

The Bering Sea has many moods.  As of late she's been fairly gentle, but for a groundswell that makes submarine deployment a tremendous challenge.  Movement of our craft from Esperanza's helideck down about 25 feet to the sea surface is our normal route to the deepsea.  But seastate determines how smooth that ride might be.  Over the past two days, a large low pressure system on the Russian side of the Bering Sea and local 20 knot winds led to  a seaswell of 10-12 feet.  The ship's professional crane operators, Boatswain Penny and First Mate Hettie can deal with lifting us from the deck, over a high rail and the 25 foot transfer to seasurface, but add to it an erratic 12 foot trough and the stress on cables and the submarines can be tremendous.   

Operating the ROV in such conditions is also harrowing, at times.  Unlike the subs, the ROV is tethered to the ship.  When the ship rocks and heaves in heavy seas, the ROV is pulled around underwater, and difficult to operate.  Nonetheless, Matt's weather window is a bit broader than ours for the subs, and he was able to deploy his CI Falcon DR ("Deep Rated") remote operated vehicle this afternoon while we stood by on hold. 

We are still on hold.  Our present location is 57 50.127 north latitude by 173 49.326 west longitude.  Time is nearly 1600 hours and depth is about 380 meters.  The location was selected because current records indicate that gorgonian corals have been collected in the area by trawls. 

Zhemchug Submarine Plan

Because of the seastate, Nuytco's sub support team have changed the dive plan ... they want me to dive solo, in case weather worsens and quick recovery is warranted.  Just as we slowed to our desired launch position, Bering Sea opaque fog flowed in from every direction and is currently blanketing the ship.  Launch is delayed until visibility improves.

I have gone through the extended predive procedure, and the crew has triple checked all systems.  At this point I have only to load my personal kit of a notebook, hat and gloves, Joel's camera and a few items I always take to depth for good luck.  Included in this assortment is my precious layered stone from the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  Nearly a year ago, I transited the Colorado River drainage by raft with a cadre of international river guides and their families.  We explored that deep canyon extensively.  Laying on my back and gazing up 2000 foot vertical walls while drifting down the river, I dreamed of what it would be like to explore the great marine canyons here in Alaska.  Now I am having that chance ... a dream come true.

Am looking forward to seeing the corals that lay below ... and the suite of other organisms inhabiting the seafloor environment.  Standing by for launch!       (Greenpeace.org webcam is on the helideck if you want to check out the fog! And the "covershot" photo on their website is of a lovely snailfish swimming among delicate branches of a black coral called Lillipathes. NEMO OF THE NORTH ! I took this still shot from Matt's ROV during a deployment in Zhemchug Canyon just a couple of days ago).

  

 

Fin Whale Frenzy at the Shelfbreak

Throughout our expedittion in the southern Bering Sea, we have been incredibly blessed with excellent weather and the constant company of marine mammals and birds.  Last night we had lots of company!  As yet another productive day of undersea exporation wound down, and the ship slowed for the evening, we were joined by hundreds of seabirds. 

Light and dark-phase northern fulmars (hundreds), mottled petrels (dozens) and albatross (9 total) gathered around the Esperanza in a huge flock.  Some aggregations of birds were clearly feeding.  Among the smaller birds, we spotted first two blackfooted (middle photo) and then a short tailed abatross (bottom .  Within half an hour, three more short tailed albatross glided in and joined the other three albatross about 100 meters off of our stern! Then a Laysan's albatross joined them, and yet two more short tailed.  The gathering of six short tailed abatross in one small aggregation so close to the ship was fantastic to witness.  With fewer than1,200 remaining on the planet, this was a significant portion of their population!

Mannes' engineer crew shut down Esperanza's main engines for an evening drifting over the Canyon. 

As daylight began to fade to darkness at around 10 pm, dozens of distant exhalation plumes from unknown cetaceans toward Experanza from the distant fogbank.  First a few dozen, then over a hundred Fin whales were in sight of Esperanza's bridge!  The massive whales were rolling about on the surface within 25 meters of the vessel on all sides!  I never observed the Fins breaching, but they seemed to be lunging near the surface ... either at one another, or perhaps in pursuit of food.  One individual was characterized by Diek as the "big bull" lunged on the surface directly toward Esperanza's bow several times. 

Whether he was defending his feeding territory, or perhaps mating territory, or simply lunging for other reasons, we cannot know.  But when a whale one-third the size of the ship makes such assertive gestures, I do wonder whether there was a message he was trying to convey.   

WHY WERE ARE THEY HERE?    I am not so familiar with the ecology of fin whales, except to know that they are considered generalists with regards to food preferences.  They apparently feed on fish and invertebrates in the water column. Although we have seen few fish or euphausiids during our descent in submarines, we are definitely in squid country.  We also know that at least some cod and myctophids are in the vicinity.  So, these may be among the species that support the great whale populations.  And since several of these species migrate up the the sea surface at night, perhaps that explains this apparent feeding frenzy at the corpuscular hour.

Studies by Alan Springer and other ecologist indicated that the Bering Sea shelf break, called the "greenbelt", is among the most productive ecosystems in the world.  From phytoplankton to top predators, the carbon produced and transferred from the deep basin waters up the slope and onto the shallow shelf rivals that of any such system on the planet. 

Helena, Rao and I continued watching the enormous pod of whales until well past midnight, at which time I had to leave the bridge to them and prepare for another day of submarining.

STAL Stern

 

Sea Life in Zhemchug

Scleractina coral Caryophyllia

Among vast soft sediment plateaus, we have been finding cobble patches and boulder habitats featuring elegant  black coral Lillipathes, at least one species of bamboo coral, raspberry-colored Swiftia, beautiful branching Primnoa, delicate soft corals and the dainty chalice-shaped true corals -- the scleractinians. 

Both ROV and submersible efforts to collect a small specimen of each of these species for taxonomic confirmation have been very successful.  Most importantly, however, through this incredible opportunity to view these species in situ, we have been observing species interactions and assocations that reveal much about the trophic ecosystem. 

Here are but a few images of some of the species and evidence of affiations among organisms deep in the canyon.

Bamboo coral polyps with brittlestar

Bluetin Tuna in the Bering Sea!

Late yesterday afternoon I was wrapping up final specimen processing from the fabulous day of collections made by submarine and ROV.  In the usual fashion, Bob and I had labelled and preserved precious coral and associated species in ethanol, formalin or in the deep freeze.  Todd Warshaw fastidiously worked his magic, capturing detailed imagery of these deep sea visitors with his macro lens.  All was growing quiet in the wetlab when Kenneth rushed in and proclaimed that my new custom water column sampling device had indeed captured something.

 

Planktonic tuna

YEA !  I gathered my vials, petri dishes and forceps into a collection tub and followed him to the helideck.  As is common when a sub  brings up samples, a few of the guys were gathered around the sampler, waiting to see what we caught .... or, so I thought.

Peering into the carefully designed "sea star" water inflow port, I spied nary a living organism.  Indeed, the aluminum canister was bright and clean .... a plankton-free zone.  However, one outstanding specimen could not be missed .... quite mysteriously, a dolphin-safe "bluetin tuna" had made its way north to the Bering Sea and into my sampler.... ha, ha, guys.  : )

Zemchug Canyon Life

Its been a big day.  We traveled west through the night across the southern Bering Sea to the rim of Zemchug Canyon.  By 0730, Kenneth and David were beginning predive activities to make the first submersible dives in the massive canyon, considered perhaps the largest submarine canyon in the world.  It is quite likely that both US and Russian submarines have been in this canyon, but we have no records of such. 

 

Just prior to launch, their dive was delayed due to some minor malfunctions in a camera wire.  I seized this opportunity to devise and construct a new sampling device for the submarine.  Esperanza’s engineering department provided a perfect aluminum tube and screen, while Nuytco’s Doug and Jeff helped build a simple plankton collection device.  For those of you watching the helideck webcam, you should be able to see the new aluminum device attached to the stern of Deepworker 7.

 

Now I am overwhelmed ... the diversity of species we have seen today is staggering.  Highlights include a wonderful array of corals ... delicate soft "mushroom" corals, Paragorgia bubble gum coral, Swiftia .. a gorgonian coral, and the lovely quill pen coral -- a tall arcing feathery orange species.  We filmed and or collected at least a dozen sponge species, as well as innumerable invertebrates and fishes. 

 

See photos of these corals, but bear in mind that these photos were taken out of the water .... their flower-like polyps have retracted, so you dont get to see the organism at its best.  Will do what I can to load underwater images soon. 

 

Late in the afternoon, Hettie and Rao alerted us from the bridge that an unusual albatross was nearby.  Once I saw the Short tailed albatross just 50 meters off of Esperanza's starboard beam, word traveled quickly to the photographers, bird enthusiasts and others on the crew.  Soon we had a flock of observers on the helideck watching this rare species drift about among hundreds of northern fulmars. 

 

Ok.  Vigilant officer, Deik, has just come by from the bridge ... reminding me of our day ahead.... I am piloting Deepworker at 0700!  The Bering Sea is smooth and passive tonight ... Esperanza gently swaying along our course to station.  We'll be there momentarily and the engines will be put to silent rest  for our drift til daylight. Goodnight.

PARAGORGIA CORALS IN ZEMCHUG CANYON!

Exciting news .....

We have been flying the CI 1000 ROV down to about 1,000 meters in Zemchug Canyon.  Within ten minutes of observing the seafloor, ROV pilot Matt located a small plateau on a boulder or dense silt cliff ... the feature is covered with sponges and home to at least one beautiful Paragorgia coral.  The ROV team collected the coral to confirm both species and to examine associated organisms.  This is the first scientifically collected and documented Paragorgia from this area, this far north, according to NMFS biologist Bob Stone. 

At just over 1,020 meters, this is the deepest documented descent by the CI 1000 undersea "robot".  Lights, cameras, the manipulator arm used for collection, and the complex electronic systems for navigation and manuevering this amazing ROV all functioned flawlessly!

The Paragorgia specimen is now in the collection cage and will be surfacing in the next few hours!