Dive 01: Blake Escarpment North
Date: June 14, 2018
Location: Lat: 32.05241898°, Lon: -76.84411196°
Dive Depth Range: 1,675 - 1,736 meters (5,495 - 5,696 feet)


Location of NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer on June 14, 2018.

Location of NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer on June 14, 2018. Download larger version (jpg, 434 KB).

3D view of the planned ROV track for Dive 01 shown as orange line. The background represents the seafloor depth color-coded with slope values. The warmer the color, the steeper the slope. The dive track went up a slope reaching maximum values of 14 degrees.

Three-dimensional view of the planned ROV track for Dive 01 shown as orange line. The background represents the seafloor depth color-coded with slope values; the warmer the color, the steeper the slope. The dive track went up a slope reaching maximum values of 14 degrees. Download larger version (jpg, 1.4 MB).

Dive 01: Brittle Star Breaststroke

This brittle star was seen swimming through the water column, which was the first time many of the participating scientists had seen this kind of behavior. Read the full video caption. Video courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Windows to the Deep 2018. Download larger version (mp4, 15.0 MB).

Today was an exciting day on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, with our first dive of the Windows to the Deep 2018 expedition and a very successful Reddit “Ask Me Anything.” The mission team was able to balance dive narration and answering Reddit questions live, responding to questions from audiences across the world. During the additional days in port, this dive was discussed and refined with the shoreside science team. Through detailed high-resolution mapping of the seafloor during the last leg of this expedition, the team was able to precisely plan a dive that would allow remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Deep Discoverer to explore a 14-degree slope on the Blake Escarpment. The dive started at about 1,727 meters (5,666 feet) at the bottom of the escarpment and transitioned up the side to a depth of about 1,675 meters (5,495 feet). This location and dive track was picked because this area of the Blake Escarpment had never been previously explored. Though this dive covers a known depth range for deep-sea corals and sponges, there had never before been coral reported from this area. Today’s discovery of a diversity of sponges and corals was a surprise to our science team and will help inform future habitat suitability modeling efforts as the type of habitat explored is prevalent throughout the ocean.

ROV Deep Discoverer was on the seafloor from 14:16:50 to 19:37:46 UTC. Two main habitat types were observed during the dive: soft sediment and rock ledges. The different habitat types were hosts for diverse species. Throughout the soft sediment, scientists observed Acanella bamboo corals and several species of sea pens. The rocky habitat was dominated by several sponge species and numerous coral species, including black coral, bamboo coral, and other species of octocoral. Fishes such as tripod fish, cusk eels, antimore (a genus of morid cods), and brotulids were also observed during the dive. The highlight of the dive was the swimming brittle star with many scientists remarking that they had not seen this behavior live before. Some other species of note were hermit crabs on sponges and corals, a skate, sea stars, urchins, and pycnogonids (sea spiders). During the dive, ROV Deep Discoverer was able to collect portions of a sponge, two types of octocorals were collected, including a bubblegum coral which was one of the dominate corals seen during the dive, and a rock to allow for further analysis. Stay tuned for the dive summary for additional details about the dive and fauna encountered.

While this dive was over 140 miles from the East Coast shoreline, the ROV still documented marine debris, including various aluminum cans and a potential scuba buoyancy control device (BCD). With the dive complete and ROV Deep Discoverer back on board the ship, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer will continue mapping overnight and plan tomorrow’s dive. Tomorrow’s dive will take us beyond the Blake Plateau to explore a deep feature at the foot of the Blake Ridge.