DEEP SEARCH: Deep Sea Exploration to Advance Research on Coral/Canyon/Cold Seep Habitats

The NF-19-09 expedition on board the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster was part of the multi-year Deep SEARCH project. This cruise occurred from October 21 to October 30, 2019. The cruise will focus on several seep sites, canyons, and hard bottom features located less than 100 nm offshore. This is the third research expedition associated with the Deep SEARCH project focused on exploring and characterizing seeps, corals, and canyon environments along the Atlantic margin. This project is a collaboration among three federal agencies: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). TDI Brooks with academic partners has been selected to serve as BOEM contractor for this study. Data gathered during this mission and past cruises for this project will help inform multiple management issues concerning this region. The goal of this expedition was to recover benthic lander deployments, conduct mid-water trawling of the deep-scattering layer, collect water samples for christry and microbial diversity analyses, perform multibeam mapping at specific targeted areas, and collect sediment, water, and faunal samples for eDNA work.