WEBVTT

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So my name is Amanda Demopoulos. I'm a research ecologist with the U.S.Geological Survey,

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and my specialty is benthic ecology. So I study animals that live on or near the seafloor.

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On the current expedition, I'm on the Okeanos Explorer, in the central Pacific Ocean,

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and we're investigating deep-sea corals, sponges, and fish communities within the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

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The part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument that we're exploring includes the Howland and Baker Islands,

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as well as Titov Seamount.

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All of these features are within the Howland-Baker Unit of PRIMNM, the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

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These dives that we've conducted in this region were the first-ever deep-sea dives within the unit,

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and what we've seen, basically we're the first eyes on the seafloor here.

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I was really struck by how how diverse the different habitat types are here,

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in terms of the geology and geological terrain.

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In particular, when we did our shallow dives on Howland and Baker Islands, we came upon these really karstic rock features that look like cathedrals.

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Really large, high archways; really complex features --basically that nature created.

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And within these cracks and crevices and archways, we found all of these different animals that are basically using these features as a home,

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including different kinds of bivalves and corals, and sometimes we would find an octopus, hidden away, tucked away within these cracks and crevices.

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So I think I was struck by the diversity habitat types as well as diversity and abundance of the animals.

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By investigating the seafloor with the ROV and taking really good imagery of what's on the seafloor,

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we have been able to gather some information on the distribution of deep-sea corals, sponges, and fish communities within the region,

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and that information will be used to better preserve and protect those resources,

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to better manage the monuments and the protected areas that we've been investigating here so far.

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And we have a number of interested scientists on the shoreside who will use the data to write proposals to come back here and do further investigation,

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because what we have done is really only the tip of the iceberg.