WEBVTT 00:00:01.063 --> 00:00:04.563 Welcome to dive nineteen of the NOAA Ocean Exploration 00:00:04.563 --> 00:00:09.063 Expedition North Atlantic Stepping Stones. The stepping 00:00:09.063 --> 00:00:12.003 stone we're looking at today is Retriever Seamount within the 00:00:12.003 --> 00:00:14.043 Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine and National 00:00:14.043 --> 00:00:19.563 Monument. There really is a unique location and a unique 00:00:19.563 --> 00:00:25.203 space right in our Atlantic backyard. And just to give it a 00:00:25.203 --> 00:00:27.663 sense of scale, you know, the Marine National Monument I'm 00:00:27.663 --> 00:00:30.363 told is about the size of Connecticut and so this is a, 00:00:30.363 --> 00:00:33.123 you know, a relatively large area in the Atlantic Coastline 00:00:33.123 --> 00:00:36.803 here that that's been protected. 00:00:37.563 --> 00:00:41.963 It really is just an incredible place, a mixture of currents, 00:00:41.963 --> 00:00:46.883 geology, and then just a variety of species that rely on 00:00:46.883 --> 00:00:50.003 this place for their migration and as the name of the 00:00:50.003 --> 00:00:53.423 exploration says, stepping stones from one place to 00:00:53.423 --> 00:01:00.963 another. It's really an oasis in the middle of the ocean. 00:01:04.563 --> 00:01:08.183 One of the reasons that we're interested in diving on this 00:01:08.183 --> 00:01:11.183 particular little volcanic cone today was both the depth. This 00:01:11.183 --> 00:01:14.663 is a great depth for lots of species of deep sea coral to 00:01:14.663 --> 00:01:17.483 live but it's also a cone feature and these cone features 00:01:17.483 --> 00:01:20.483 can increase the water flow and kind of circle the water around 00:01:20.483 --> 00:01:24.323 them. When we see that circling of water, we often see that 00:01:24.323 --> 00:01:27.683 larvae transported and food is brought in and retained in 00:01:27.683 --> 00:01:31.223 these areas and so we wondered if this was an area where we'd 00:01:31.223 --> 00:01:34.643 see a lot of biodiversity and I would say that those hypothesis 00:01:34.643 --> 00:01:40.543 have been true. So this is pretty amazing. This uh bamboo 00:01:40.543 --> 00:01:43.303 coral here. If we take uh growth rates from other bamboo 00:01:43.303 --> 00:01:47.563 corals uh in the deep ocean. This colony here could be 1,600 00:01:47.563 --> 00:01:50.523 years old. 00:01:51.563 --> 00:01:55.903 Once you look closely at the bottom, um it's just remarkable 00:01:55.903 --> 00:01:59.763 how much is alive and living down here.