NEPTUNE Canada

ROPOS, the Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean Science, scoops a milk jug full of clams and sediment from the methane-rich gas hydrate outcrops of Barkley Canyon. An unusual community of organisms inhabit this area, where frozen gas hydrates mounds rise from the surrounding sediment. Specialized microbes feed on the methane emerging from the seafloor, and in turn are eaten by clams and other creatures living in this zone, approximately 870m below sea level in the northeast Pacific ocean.

In this time-lapse video (sped-up 2000%), seabed clams crawl, creep and even jump as they feed in the bacteria-rich mud at Barkley Canyon Hydrates. This is a location where an unusual community of organisms thrive amidst frozen gas hydrate outcrops, 871m below the surface.

We encountered beautiful red and white corals thriving atop knife-edged ridges at about 2200m depth. These rocky outcrops are found in the volcanically active Endeavour Ridge Marine Protected Area along the spreading boundary between the Pacific and Juan de Fuca tectonic plates.

On October 8 2010 we visited the volcanically active seafloor of Endeavour Ridge, a bizarre realm of sulphide towers and venting black smokers. Hydrothermal vents support rich communities of specially adapted tubeworms, scale worms and limpets, which thrive in the 325°C effluent.

We encountered a school of curious sunfish, resembling luminous moons in the ocean night.

On 30 September 2010, we installed a BARS (Benthic & Resistivity Sensors) device at the Grotto hydrothermal vent in the Endeavour Ridge deep-sea rift valley. Watch as ROPOS lifts the device from the nearby instrument platform, flies with it to the vent site, then inserts the probe into a black smoker vent opening. The BARS recorded temperatures near the vent at 4°C, and over 329°C inside the vent. Incredibly, tubeworms and other creatures flourish on hydrothermal vents due to unique adaptations allowing them to withstand such extreme temperature variations.

While installing a science node at our Middle Valley location (2400m below sea level), the ROPOS pilot focused his camera on a scuffle over a dead shrimp. Ophiuroids, better known as brittle stars demonstrate their speed, agility and skill in limb-to-limb combat. Note: this video is a re-make of an earlier one posted on our YouTube channel -- with improved video and sped-up action.

At ODP 889 (1256m below the sea surface), we happened upon an abandoned rice cooker or crock-pot and screwdriver upon which sat a large crab. The ROPOS pilot carefully opened the lid. Inside, we discovered a mother octopus with her brood of eggs! Collaborating scientist suggested adopting this creature as the Bubbly Gulch mascot. We're calling her "Kraki." For photos see http://www.flickr.com/photos/neptunecanada/4624565521/

The CSEM equipment consists of a transmitter, affixed to a small instrument platform, and a string of 5 receivers, spaced 200m apart along a 1km cable. The cable and receivers were spooled onto a drum, which was connected to ROCLS. Both of these payloads were lowered by winch from the deck of the R/V Thompson to the seafloor. The CSEM deployment involved two ROPOS dives and two equipment drops using the ship's winch. The man of the hour during all of this was University of Toronto doctoral candidate Reza Mir, who joined the installation cruise to help coordinate and oversee installation. Once the ROCLS spool and the transmitter platform were placed on the seafloor, ROPOS flew down, attached to ROCLS, laid the 1km reciever string and recovered ROCLS to the ship. In the following dive, ROPOS again located the transmitter platform, arranged two heavy dipoles on the seafloor nearby, connected it to the receiver string and connected the ODP 889 instrument platform to the CSEM platform.

Wally was deployed in September 2009 to a cold seep site in one of Barkley Canyons gas hydrate fields. The worlds first Internet-operated deep-sea crawler is equipped with sensors to measure temperature, pressure, water currents, salinity, methane and turbidity. Wally also sports a pan/tilt webcam, affording detailed views of the seafloor sediments and local sea life. The crawler was designed and built by scientists at Jacobs University in Bremen Germany.

Wally was deployed in September 2009 to a cold seep site in one of Barkley Canyons gas hydrate fields. The worlds first Internet-operated deep-sea crawler is equipped with sensors to measure temperature, pressure, water currents, salinity, methane and turbidity. Wally also sports a pan/tilt webcam, affording detailed views of the seafloor sediments and local sea life. The crawler was designed and built by scientists at Jacobs University in Bremen Germany.

When ROPOS grasps an anemone-festooned rope, the startled animal shrinks into a pink ball. A short while later, as ROPOS prepares to fasten the rope to the drillhead, the octopus first lurks in the sediment, then flaps its web and flies off into the darkness.

This silent movie, compiled from video clips captured by the Tempo-mini camera, spans a 24-hr period on November 11, 2008 on the seafloor in Saanich Inlet. This camera captured 3 minutes of action every half hour over the period; each clip is sped up to create a sort of time-lapse movie. In the upper-right corner, a trace of pressure (in decibars) indicates tidal phase over the course of the day. Tempo-mini's oxygen sensor is the device at left. At this 100m location, squat lobsters, soles, anemones (metridium), and sponges inhabit the seafloor, which is visited by a wide assortment of small fish, krill and plankton. An unusual visitor makes a brief appearance toward the end of the movie.