WEBVTT 00:00:06.203 --> 00:00:12.758 My name is Stacey Williams, I'm a co-founder of a non-profit organization called the Institute for Socioecological Research. 00:00:13.544 --> 00:00:22.809 And I'm a benthic ecologist and I've been studying the marine communities, shallow water reef systems, and deepwater reef systems around Puerto Rico and throughout the Caribbean. 00:00:24.523 --> 00:00:33.651 Right now, I'm on the Okeanos Explorer and we are going around the U.S. Caribbean and Puerto Rico with multiple objectives. 00:00:34.659 --> 00:00:39.708 Mapping and surveying and exploring the deep-sea habitats in this region and 00:00:39.768 --> 00:00:50.356 also to characterize some of these benthic communities like deep-sea corals and sponges and also dimersal fishes, especially the commercially important fish. 00:00:51.255 --> 00:00:57.646 We have a couple of commercial fish species in Puerto Rico that reside in some of these deep-sea habitats. 00:00:58.529 --> 00:01:04.656 And one of the goals of this expedition is to survey and characterize these habitats and actually try to locate  00:01:05.470 --> 00:01:09.374 and video some of these commercial species. 00:01:11.844 --> 00:01:15.557 So we're hoping to see two species of snappers. 00:01:16.257 --> 00:01:20.341 One is the silk snapper. It kind of resides in shallower depths. 00:01:21.294 --> 00:01:22.621 The other one is the queen snapper. 00:01:23.050 --> 00:01:28.010 And we're also hoping to observe the misty grouper, which is a deepwater grouper. 00:01:29.138 --> 00:01:34.834 And not much is known of their habitat and what they eat, how they reproduce. 00:01:35.502 --> 00:01:37.262 So this expedition is very important. 00:01:39.279 --> 00:01:45.645 So what we have learned about this fish during this expedition is that many thought that the depth distribution of  00:01:45.705 --> 00:01:51.912 queen snapper was actually down to 400 meters, or some fishermen said that it was down to 450 meters, 00:01:52.645 --> 00:01:58.747 but just the other day, we actually were able to observe the queen snapper down to 539 meters. 00:01:59.498 --> 00:02:02.694 So their depth distribution is actually much greater than what we thought. 00:02:04.037 --> 00:02:13.359 Ah, I think this is a queen snapper. Yeah, this would be a new record depth for queen snapper if this is the case. 00:02:14.930 --> 00:02:19.183 There we go. That would be a fortuitous dive site first. 00:02:20.392 --> 00:02:26.000 And this has really important management implications for these deepwater habitats and for this species. 00:02:29.066 --> 00:02:34.234 So the local Puerto Rican fishermen, they're playing an immense role on this expedition. 00:02:35.300 --> 00:02:39.958 They have helped us before the expedition, to during the expedition.  00:02:40.018 --> 00:02:42.555 They've been participating in calls and chats. 00:02:43.323 --> 00:02:50.930 They also before the expedition recommended some of the sites to where we should visit because those are the sites where they target some of these queen snappers. 00:02:51.658 --> 00:02:54.695 So their role on this expedition has been monumental.  00:02:56.619 --> 00:02:58.659 Good morning, this is Ricardo Lugo. 00:03:00.191 --> 00:03:05.812 There is a reef out there just south of that area which is very good for fishing. 00:03:08.257 --> 00:03:15.028 But it's very good, the quality of the water is good mainly because there is no major river discharging into the area. 00:03:15.928 --> 00:03:26.055 So the fishermen, with their help and their knowledge, we were able to actually go to some of these sites and survey some of these sites for queen snappers. 00:03:28.161 --> 00:03:31.698 So the information collected during this expedition will help the local fishermen. 00:03:32.305 --> 00:03:33.656 I can think of one way. 00:03:34.371 --> 00:03:39.443 The local fishermen have mentioned to me before this expedition that they loose a lot of their gear  00:03:40.155 --> 00:03:46.897 when fishing for these deepwater silk snappers and queen snappers because they use vertical longlines, 00:03:47.577 --> 00:03:53.785 and a lot of times their lines get caught up in these corals and sponges and they lose their fishing gear. 00:03:54.387 --> 00:04:02.872 So this expedition can help them possibly not target these areas, where there is a high diversity or a high abundance of corals and sponges. 00:04:03.942 --> 00:04:06.191 So it could save them money in the long run. 00:04:07.146 --> 00:04:19.067 By the way, this is incredible information for the fishermen because the bottom contour clearly explains to understand, 00:04:19.894 --> 00:04:24.547 you know, why so many lines get stuck there. 00:04:25.597 --> 00:04:29.299 So throughout this expedition, there's been a pretty terrific partnership. 00:04:29.979 --> 00:04:34.918 We've been collaborating with scientists from all over the world and also some of the local fishermen from Puerto Rico, 00:04:35.972 --> 00:04:40.155 and also even collaborating with representatives from the Caribbean Fishery Management Council  00:04:40.899 --> 00:04:43.906 as well as from NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. 00:04:45.608 --> 00:04:51.086 And we been all coming together to explore some of these deep waters around Puerto Rico.