On 15 June 2021, a science team will embark on a two-week expedition to uncover the mysteries of Canada’s deepest seamounts in the Offshore Pacific Marine Protected Area of Interest. This expedition is a partnership among Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Ocean Networks Canada, the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, and the Council of the Haida Nation, working together to explore and share discoveries from this adventure.
This survey will expand the knowledge from our previous Pacific Seamounts partner expeditions in 2017, 2018, and 2019 where many discoveries were made—including discoveries of new seamounts, new animal distributions and behaviours, and even new species to science! The discoveries from these expeditions will provide information to those involved in the conservation and management of these unique ecosystems in Canadian waters.
Past expeditions focused on Canada’s shallowest seamounts, largest seamounts, and previously fished seamounts, but this year we will dive deeper than ever before to explore what lives on these ancient volcanoes hidden kilometers below the surface (Figure 1 and Figure 8).
Figure 1: The four deep seamounts for the 2021 expedition, three of which are within the Proposed Marine Protected Area offshore Vancouver Island. These seamounts represent the deepest in our waters. The white dots indicate the locations of 62 known seamounts.
What is a Seamount?
Figure 2. Illustration of a seamount.
Seamounts are underwater mountains that rise more than 1,000 meters from the seafloor (Figure 2). They are considered ‘hotspots’ of biological productivity and diversity. Ocean currents meet the slopes of seamounts and carry nutrient-rich water upwards from the depths of the ocean. Close to the sunlit surface, this fast-running nutrient-rich water supports a bloom of life that has cascading ecosystem effects over the entire mountain. Seamounts provide refugium and nursery grounds for many species far from the continental slope. Predators such as birds, fish, and marine mammals use seamounts as feeding grounds. Unique and long-living species, such as cold-water corals and glass sponges, are found in bands along the seamounts slopes and add to the seamount structure complexity, creating habitat for many other species (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Images from Canadian Pacific seamounts of the marine wildlife that call these ancient volcanoes home.
Scientists and Partners
Figure 4. The #PacificSeamounts2019 team on the CCGS John P. Tully with the submersible vehicles used to explore the deep.
Tammy Norgard, Expedition Lead Scientist, Deep Sea Ecology Program Head
Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Dr. Cherisse Du Preez, Marine Biologist
Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Chelsea Stanley, Fisheries Acoustics Research Technician
Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Benjamin Snow, Biologist and BOOTS navigator
Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Jackie Detering, Technician and BOOTS navigator
Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Andy Vanier, Technician and BOOTS navigator
Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Paul Macoun, Boots Technician
Highland Technologies
The partners
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada
- Ocean Networks Canada
- Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council
- Council of the Haida Nation
The Tools
The expedition will be conducted from a large research vessel, the Canadian Coast Guard Ship John P. Tully (Figure 5). From this research vessel the scientists will use acoustic technology to map the seafloor. Many of the seamounts have never been mapped before and we may even witness a new seamount discovery.
Figure 5. The CCGS John P. Tully at sea deploying BOOTS over a seamount.
The Bathyal Ocean Observation and Televideo System (Figure 6), also known as “BOOTS,” is a submersible drop camera platform containing high-resolution cameras, floodlights, and sensors. Attached to and controlled from aboard the ship, it can dive up to 2,100 meters while delivering real-time imagery and ocean temperature, oxygen level, depth, and current data.
BOOTS was designed and built, in part, at Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Figure 6. BOOTS being deployed for a research dive.
To study the ocean properties around seamounts, the researchers will also be deploying plankton tows (Figure 7) for studying life in the water column, targeted rosette water casts to collect water from set depths for analysis on nutrients, etc., and we will be using the acoustic technology to profile life in the water column. This year the plankton tows will have a very cool tool called an underwater vision profiler that will allow the researchers to see the microscopic animals as they are being sampled with the plankton net.
Figure 7. Plankton nets being deployed to sample life in the water column above the seamounts. The tiny animals are identified and inventoried at sea using microscopes and cameras.
The Area: The Offshore Pacific Area of Interest
In May 2017, Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced a new large offshore Area of Interest off the coast of British Columbia, beginning the extensive process of establishing the area as a Marine Protected Area under Canada’s Oceans Act. This area was designated as an Area of Interest based on its unique seafloor features and ecosystems, which include dozens of seamounts and extensive networks of hydrothermal vents.
The Area of Interest has interim protection through the Offshore Pacific Seamount and Vents Closure marine refuge, which was established in October 2017. The marine refuge aims to protect the area’s unique ecosystem and prohibits all bottom-contact commercial and recreational fishing activities.
Figure 8. This map identifies the 62 Offshore Pacific Bioregion seamounts, with coloured circles denoting the 12 seamounts surveyed in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
We hope you will join us on this two-week expedition as we dive deeper than ever before to explore the nature and marine wildlife on British Columbia’s seamounts. We invite you to share in the joy of discovery and the thrill of being a marine biologist by participating in deep-sea exploration as we find and film never-before-seen species, animal behaviours, and ocean scapes. Through our partnerships, we hope to reach communities in British Columbia, across Canada, and around the world, engaging everyone in the process of frontier science and exploration.
Join us by following #PacificSeamounts2021 on social media and tuning into our live dives here.
