From July 15 – August 2, 2024, 6 CSSF team members supported Dalhousie University, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) aboard the R/V Henry B. Bigelow for the Cross-border Coral Habitat Exploration (CroCHEt) Expedition in the Gulf of Maine and in submarine canyons on the continental slope, including two in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The aims of the scientific team were to answer several questions about deep-water corals and to maintain successful collaboration between Canadian and US scientists. Scientists from Dalhousie University, the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science, DFO, and NOAA all participated. The expedition had 8 scientific objectives: 1) conduct video surveys and collect specimens at various locations, 2) explore new areas that may be of interest for protection, 3) evaluate deep-water coral abundance and spatial distribution, 4) collect fauna for taxonomic, reproductive, age, and isotopic analyses, 5) collect data for long-term monitoring in conservation areas, 6) undertake onboard experiments on temperature tolerance of select coral species, 7) collect water samples for eDNA analysis, and 8) collect multibeam data. Work that required the expertise of our team and ROPOS included the collection of imagery, biological samples, and seawater samples.

Read more: Dalhousie, NOAA and DFO’s CroCHEt Expedition

On June 5, 2024, the ROPOS At-Sea Team was announced as the 2023 winner of the prestigious J. P. Tully Medal of Oceanography from the Canadian Meteorology and Oceanography Society (CMOS)! The award recognizes any person whose scientific contributions have had a significant impact on Canadian oceanography.

Read more: ROPOS Team Awarded the J. P. Tully Medal of Oceanography

From July 11 – August 8, 2024, 4 CSSF team members piloted the CCGS Amundsen’s ROV, ASTRID (Amundsen Science Technology for Remote Innovation and Discoveries) in the Labrador Sea as part of contract work to support Amundsen Science.

Leg 2a of the 2024 Amundsen Expedition was led by the Nunatsiavut Government in collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and several other research programs led by other organisations, including ArcticFish, Arctic Kelp, Avaaforfish, Natural Resources Canada’s marine mapping programs, the Northern Contaminants Program and the Ocean Frontier Institute’s Sustainable Nunatsiavut Futures program. Leg 2a took place along coastal Labrador, as well as in the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay, Canada. Two programs required the use of an ROV during Leg 2a, 1) the Imappivut Initiative and 2) DFO’s Benthic Refuges Program. For these, the science objectives were to further study previously identified biodiversity hot spots and investigate new biodiversity hot spots, with the guidance of local Nunatsiavut knowledge, as well as to characterize benthic habitats within or adjacent to Marine Refuges.

From April 21 – May 22, 2024, 10 CSSF team members supported the Korean Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) aboard the R/V Isabu for their INDEX2024 Expedition. Participants included scientists from the University of Washington (UW) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (NOAA, PMEL). [Add: Science Team objectives]. ROPOS was required to operate specialised water- and gas-tight samplers in deep-sea environments.

Read more: KIOST’s 2024 Indian Ocean Expedition