At NW Eifuku, we’re planning to do at least three back-to-back Jason dives, and we’re going to use the elevator mooring to
send samplers down to the seafloor and get them back while Jason stays and works.
It’s very interesting because it’s got lots of different little environments.
Because it’s got iron bacteria, why wouldn’t we be interested in NW Eifuku?
So there’s lots of iron mats here and I’m trying to look at the structure and function iron-oxidizing bacteria.
Bacteria are the primary producers and then everything is built off of animals that graze the bacteria.
I saw a lot of animals that I’ve never seen before.
So there’s quite a few different types of animals down there.
There’s a few species of shrimp, and there’s mussels and crabs and squat lobsters.
There’s some really cool scale worms. So you see things and they look like giant pill bugs. They’re really cool.
It's got beds that go on forever, covered in mussels. Lots of different little pockets.
It’s one of my favorite volcanoes along here.