Science success before the storm

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Scientific eqipment recovered after eigtht years covered in fauna
On the 13 September, just before the stormy weather came in, the first survey Autosub6000, our AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle: a robotic submarine that can be programmed to scan the seabed with a side-scan sonar for 24 hours, without pilot supervision), was completed. The sonar maps the…

Our science at the Darwin Mounds has started!

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Longnose velvet dogfish
On the morning of 11 September the Royal Research Ship Discovery arrived at the western Darwin Mounds. The weather allowed us to collect data using a variety of techniques. The seabed substrate from ±1,000m depth was sampled using a box core in order to characterise the fauna (under 1mm) living…

Research expedition will assess recovery of Scottish coral reef

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A healthy coral mount
On Friday 6 September a team of scientists and engineers, led by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and University of Southampton, will set sail to revisit a deep, cold-water coral reef area 16 years after it was named a Marine Protected Area, to look for evidence the coral is regenerating.…

On the way to the Darwin Mounds

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RRS Discovery on way to the Darwin Mounds
Earlier today, the Royal Research Ship (RRS) Discovery departed from the National Oceanography Centre (Southampton) to bring a team of 20 scientists to revisit the Darwin Mounds marine protected area. This marine protected area is named after the RRS Charles Darwin, the research vessel from…