Today’s remotely operated vehicle dive was a two-part dive, with the first part targeting seafloor habitats at 1,000-1,200 meter (3,280-3,937 foot) depths, and the second part dedicated to midwater transects at depths between 300-900 meters (984-2,952 feet). The seafloor portion of the dive consisted primarily of soft sediments with interspersed outcrops consisting of ferromanganese-coated rocks.

While not particularly abundant, deep-sea corals were quite diverse at the site. We saw two species of scleractinians, Javania sp. and Madrepora oculata, the latter of which was often seen on soft sediments. The few areas with hard substrates often hosted deep-sea corals, and we observed several different species of black corals, stylasterids, corallids, primnoids, chrysogorgids, plexaurids, and bamboo corals. Interestingly, we saw two instances of predation by goniasterid sea stars on bamboo coral.

Another instance of predatory behavior was a red urchin in the family Cidaridae eating a carnivorous sponge (Chondrocladia sp.), something we had not yet seen on this expedition. Other sponges seen during this dive included large glass sponges in the families Hyalonematidae, Euplectellidae, and Farreidae, as well as smaller sponges, possibly demosponges, encrusting ferromanganese-caoted rocks. Sea cucumbers were commonly observed on soft sediments. We only observed three species of fish on the seafloor portion of the dive, including halosaurs (Aldrovandia sp.), rattails (Coryphaenoides sp.) and tripod fish (Bathytyphlops sp.).

The second half of the dive explored midwater communities along horizontal transects at depths of 900, 700, 500, and 300 meters (2,953; 2,297; 1,640; and 984 feet). The midwater assemblages recorded at this location were much more diverse than on the previous midwater dive of this expedition at Mona Canyon (Dive 10). We observed a number of different organisms, including ctenophores, radiolarians, shrimp, medusae, siphonophores, and fish.