EX2104: 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones: New England and Corner Rise Seamounts (ROV and Mapping)

The 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones: New England and Corner Rise Seamounts expedition (EX-21-04) was a combined mapping and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) expedition to the seamounts of the Northwest Atlantic that took place between June 30 and July 29, 2021. Operations during this 30-day at sea expedition included a combination of ROV dives in support of NOAA Ocean Exploration and its partner priorities as well as exploratory mapping operations targeting areas containing no or poor quality modern mapping data. The initial focus was on the U.S. Northeast Seamount and high seas areas, however, during the expedition weather altered the planned transect to outside Bermudan waters where three dives took place before rejoining the planned dive sites exploring a total of 19 seamounts and one canyon (Hydrographer) for water column exploration. During the expedition, 20 Deep Discoverer ROV dives were conducted from 300 m to 4187 m water depth for a total of 154 hours of bottom time, and surveyed using EM 304 multibeam sonar 54,710 square km over 30 days at sea. All data associated with this expedition have been archived and are publicly available through the NOAA Archives.