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NURC and the Office of Ocean Exploration
lead a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and educations to explore the New England Seamounts
chain off Georges Bank.
The Mountains in the Sea expedition
departed Woods Hole, MA on July 11, 2003 to explore the New England Seamount chain, which extends
from Georges Bank off coastal New England to just northeast of Bermuda. The mission plan includes
DSV Alvin dives on Manning, Kelvin and Bear Seamounts to survey biodiversity patterns of deep sea
corals, fishes and invertebrates.
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Spiral shaped coral, Iridogorgia
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This expedition is truly exploratory as one of
the seamounts (Kelvin) has never been visited, Manning was visited once in 1974 and just recently
by our collaborator, Jess Adkins, and Bear was dived on twice in 1968. Science objectives include
sampling to study biodiversity relating to invertebrate and fish community structure, and deep sea
coral molecular genetics, reproductive structure morphology (shape), feeding strategies, aging and
taxonomy.
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A Morid cod, Laemonema sp.
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Although the geological and physical oceanography of New England seamounts have been studied,
little is known of the animals that live there. Deepwater reef-like habitats represent extremely
unique environments that are of particular concern. We know that deep-water fishes reproduce slowly
and are therefore very sensitive to overfishing. The deep-water corals we are likely to encounter
are poorly understood, potentially significant indicators of climate change and are sensitive to
bottom fishing activities.
For more information about the mission
including background, images, and daily logs, please visit Ocean Explorer's
Mountains in the Sea website.
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Click here to watch video
of coral garden at Manning Seamount 
