In February 2021, 9 members of the CSSF team travelled from Victoria, Halifax and St. Johns to Wellington, New Zealand, to participate in an NSF/GNS funded expedition on board the NIWA research vessel Tangaroa. To meet New Zealand’s COVID requirements for entry into the country the team was quarantined for 14 days in a hotel in Wellington in advance of proceeding to the ship.

Read more: New Zealand - South Pacific Expedition Summary

From October 31st to December 18th, the CSSF team had the pleasure of working for the German Federal Institutes of Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) in the Indian Ocean, on board the deep-sea research ship RV SONNE. INDEX2019 focused on exploring for new active and inactive polymetallic sulphide sites and on expanding the environmental baseline in BGR’s allocated lease clusters. During this 7-week period ROPOS conducted 18 dives and went to a maximum depth of 3,300 meters.

Read more: ROPOS Supports BGR in the Indian Ocean

The CSSF team joined the BGR team onboard the RV Pelagia in Port Louis, Mauritius on December 1, 2021. The ROPOS system, recently offloaded from the Korean vessel RV Isabu, sat waiting on the pier as the RV Pelagia pulled alongside.

Read more: BGR 2021 Expedition Summary – RV Pelagia

From 14-27 June 2019, the CSSF team joined chief scientists Drs. Martha Nizinski (NOAA) and Anna Metaxas (Dalhousie University) in support of their deep-sea coral research in submarine canyons off the Northeast Coast of the U.S. and Canada and in the Northern Gulf of Maine. The research team focused on filling data gaps in the distribution, abundance, and diversity of deep-sea corals to inform resource managers and aid in determining MPA boundaries and coral-closure areas on both sides of the border.

Read more: Deep-Sea Coral Research in Submarine Canyons