2021 Nautilus Expeditions

Launching our 2021 E/V Nautilus season, researchers will spend two days exploring oxygen minimum zones off the coast of southern California and seven days conducting seafloor mapping within the traditional and modern lands and waters of the Tongva, Kizh, and Chumash peoples. This expedition starts in San Pedro, where we will conduct three days of exploratory work to support Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Harvard University researchers in their NASA-funded projects in the Santa Barbara Basin. Here, ROV Hercules will collect pushcore samples in sediments with microbial mats and foraminifera, as well as measure oxygen content, conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) of the water while exploring across the varying oxygen gradient on the seafloor and through the water column.  

We will also deploy the Autonomous Biogeochemical Instrument for in situ Studies (ABISS) lander, a prototype for a wireless seafloor sampling tool that will be used to study microbial activity, measure ambient light,  and conduct an incubation experiment autonomously on the seafloor. 

The expedition will then continue north to Astoria, Oregon using the multibeam echosounder and sub-bottom profiler to map gaps in seafloor bathymetry in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. An analysis published in January 2020 showed that nearly one-quarter of the Pacific EEZ off the Washington, Oregon and California coasts has yet to be mapped. Mapping on this expedition will  contribute directly to filling these gaps in the U.S. EEZ and also aligns with the goals of Seabed 2030, a global initiative to explore uncharted ocean areas. 

For two weeks, E/V Nautilus will return to the Cascadia Margin, a geologically active region located offshore of Washington, Oregon, and northern California, where we have mapped and explored many methane seeps and cold seeps. Since the 2016 expedition season, E/V Nautilus and other vessel’s multibeam sonar surveys have located over 3,500 previously unknown bubble streams rising from the Cascadia Margin between the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Washington and California’s Cape Mendocino at depths between 200-3,200 meters (Merle et al., 2021).

Our 2021 dives will focus on several previously unexplored regions along the margin to sample at methane seep sites on the shelf and along the slope. Most of these seep sites were discovered during mid-water surveys on previous expeditions in 2016, 2017, and 2018, but have never been visited by an ROV. Just a small number of the previous ROV dive sites will be revisited to shed light on a helium anomaly observed in 2016 and 2018, as well as for a second field test of the new hydrate sampler. During nighttime mapping efforts, we will focus on exploring for more methane seeps in currently unsurveyed areas. 

As we continue deep-sea documentation in this extensive coastal region from California to Washington, we acknowledge that the land and waters are within the traditional and modern territories of the Tolowa Dee-ni’, Chit-dee-ni, Tututni, Miluk Coos, Coos, Lower Umpqua, Siuslaw, Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde, Älsé, Yakina, Tillamook, Siletz, Salmon River, Nestucca, Nehalem, Chinook, Clatsop, Willapa, Coast Salish, Chehalis, Quinault, Queets, ChalAt’i’lo t’sikAti, Quileute, Makah, and S’Klallum peoples. 

For 28 days, E/V Nautilus will provide support to Ocean Networks Canada’s (ONC) NEPTUNE observatory located off the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, within the traditional and modern territories of the Nuu-chah-nulth and Coast Salish peoples. This deep-sea network reaches 250 kilometers off-shore and consists of an 800-kilometer loop of fiber optic cable connected to instruments that enable scientists to study continuous long-term observations not afforded by traditional ship-based ocean exploration. This expedition marks the sixth year of the partnership between Ocean Networks Canada and the Ocean Exploration Trust.  

In addition to deploying, recovering, and providing maintenance for various observatory sensors and instruments, Nautilus will also conduct seafloor mapping surveys, and ROV dives including biological and geological sampling. The expedition will include work at various observatory sites including: Barkley Canyon, continental margin at Clayoquot Slope, abyssal plain of Cascadia Basin, and the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents. 

A seven day mapping expedition in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) will cover priority areas identified by scientists in support of future expeditions and filling gaps in bathymetry along the U.S. West Coast. This biologically rich region extends more than 320 kilometers offshore and provides a vast array of natural resources important to the national economy, including fisheries, energy, and other mineral resources. 

Mapping in this region is a priority of the Expanding Pacific Research and Exploration of Submerged Systems (EXPRESS), a cooperative multi-year and multi-institution research campaign to develop comprehensive models and maps in the deep sea areas of  northern California, Oregon, and Washington. EXPRESS partners include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Bureau of Energy Management, United States Geological Survey, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and University of Southern California Sea Grant.  

Over the course of 10 days, E/V Nautilus will host the testing of several NOAA Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute (OECI) assets, including a DriX-08 autonomous surface vessel (ASV) owned by the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping and midwater characterization and environmental DNA sampling capability from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s (WHOI) Mesobot autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). This is the first technical test of cutting edge ocean exploration tools that will enhance our capabilities to more fully and efficiently characterize the ocean. These technology trials will be conducted off Southern California, in the traditional and modern lands and waters of the Tongva, Kizh, and Chumash peoples. 

DriX is a wave-piercing ASV that provides high-speed mapping capability and offers the potential to greatly increase the efficiency of mapping programs by offering simultaneous mapping from a primary vessel. In the context of Pacific U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone operations, the ASV system provides the opportunity for the primary ship to map the deepwater while the ASV can simultaneously map the shallower waters. It can also be used as a communications hub between the primary vessel and other autonomous robots, like Mesobot.

Mesobot is an AUV designed to study the mesopelagic zone, or midwater, using cameras and lights to study mesopelagic animals and collect environmental samples. Able to deploy for longer than a full day, the Mesobot can follow animals as they undertake vertical migrations at dawn and dusk from the deep ocean towards the surface. Mesobot will carry a filter sampler, enabling it to capture geochemical samples, plankton, microbes, or seawater for further study, including eDNA analysis. These new technologies enable scientists to characterize in situ behavior over extended periods for the first time, and can be used to assess how the composition of the animal community changes over time.

The NOAA OECI is a consortium of academic and non-academic partners including the University of Rhode Island, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, University of New Hampshire, University of Southern Mississippi, and Ocean Exploration Trust.

This is the second of two expeditions to support the testing of novel or emerging capabilities with autonomous technologies through the NOAA Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute (OECI). The goal of this nine-day expedition is to test the capabilities of the Nereid Under Ice (NUI) vehicle — a hybrid autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) — and acoustic communications with ROV Argus.  These technology trials will be conducted at two known sites of interest off Southern California, in the traditional and modern lands and waters of the Tongva, Kizh, and Chumash peoples. 

NUI was developed by engineers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as a vehicle originally intended to explore far under ice shelves. The importance of this expedition lies in testing the ability of NUI to operate in different modes, from fully autonomous (e.g. mapping on a pre-set mission), to semi-autonomous (e.g. receiving a new mapping mission via optical modem), to fully controlled via an optical modem on ROV Argus to collect push core samples. This proof-of-concept operations test will lead to new methodologies or “concepts of operations’ for exploring in the future.

The first proposed dive area is the Santa Monica Basin seep site that E/V Nautilus routinely uses as a sonar testing target to determine the water column backscatter capabilities of the EM302 echosounder are functioning on annual shakedown tests. The second target at Osborn Bank at more complex terrain, will locate and image submerged caves amongst ancient shoreline features at depths down to 80 meters. 

The NOAA OECI is a consortium of academic and non-academic partners including the University of Rhode Island, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, University of New Hampshire, University of Southern Mississippi, and Ocean Exploration Trust.

E/V Nautilus will transition to a homebase in the central Pacific for the next several years, starting with a  17-day mapping expedition. The mapping on this expedition will contribute directly to filling mapping gaps in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) southeast of Hawai’i, and also filling gaps in international waters during the mapping transit. As we move west from North America, we acknowledge the indigenous and local communities of the Pacific Rim and Oceania — including Native Hawaiians, Polynesians, Melanesians, Micronesians, Papuans, and other Pasifika peoples — that have stewarded through generations the ocean, seas, coastlines, and lands of what is now the Pacific Ocean. 

Mapping of the seafloor by echosounder commenced nearly a century ago, however, more than 80% of the world’s seafloor is still not mapped, even at a resolution of 1 kilometer — and the eastern Pacific Ocean is no exception. The transit route has been planned away from the direct passage, and will utilize the multibeam echosounder and sub-bottom profiler to fill in gaps in seabed mapping coverage across the Pacific, plus targeted mapping of bathymetry coverage gaps in the U.S. EEZ to fulfill requirements of the Seabed 2030 project. Ocean Exploration Trust is an official partner of Seabed 2030, an international collaboration which aims to have 100% of the seafloor mapped by 2030.  

This 26-day expedition will involve multibeam and sub-bottom profiler mapping on Liliʻuokalani Seamounts, located in an expansion area of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM), encompassing more than 1.5 million square kilometers. As we visit Papahānaumokuākea, the wahi kūpuna of the Hawaiian people and the largest marine conservation area under the US flag, we gratefully acknowledge generations of indigenous Hawaiians and today’s stewards of these waters.

Since scientific exploration has not been conducted in this expansion region, we must first map the seamounts to provide detailed visualization of the targeted features. Information collected during this expedition will help to determine summit depths and pinpoint future dive sites for our team when we will conduct ROV dives at Liliʻuokalani Seamounts in 2022.  Satellite and nautical chart data suggest that at least two seamounts in this area reach surprisingly shallow depths given their assumed Cretaceous origin between 66 and 145 million years ago. This expedition contributes to the National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization Council (NOMEC) and GEBCO Seabed 2030 seafloor mapping priorities. Both efforts to build complete maps of the seafloor require dedicated surveying efforts, particularly in remote areas to meet these goals within the next decade. 97% of the seafloor >3000 m depth in the PMNM and Pacific Remote Islands is currently unmapped (Westington et al, 2019).

Returning to Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) after an expedition in 2018, our team will be conducting ROV surveys on a chain of seamounts, and document whether these underwater mountains support vibrant coral and sponge communities like others in the region.

PMNM encompasses 582,578 square miles of the Pacific Ocean, an area larger than all the United States’ national parks combined, and is one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world. As we visit Papahānaumokuākea, the wahi kūpuna of the Hawaiian people, we gratefully acknowledge generations of indigenous Hawaiians and today’s stewards of these lands and waters.

A region of PMNM that has never been explored by ROV holds promise to determine the previously unrecognized southernmost extent of the Wentworth seamounts, a small chain of Cretaceous "hotspot" or "mid-plate" volcanoes created between 66 and 145 million years ago. While mapping and diving in this area, our team will survey and map seamounts while conducting geological sampling and documenting biological communities. We will be looking for high-density coral and sponge communities as well as working to identify potentially new-to-science macro-biological specimens. Rock samples are critical to this expedition for several reasons: determining the microbe-mineral interactions and mineral content of the ferromanganese crusts, which form the outer layer of deep-sea rocks, as well as the age and mineral composition of the rocks to unlock the origins of these seamounts. Microbial communities residing on and within these crusts and rocks may provide important services to seamount ecosystems, such as a potential food source or by conducting nutrient cycling. 

Understanding and protecting the natural ecosystems is a primary goal of the Monument. While the marine species from shallow waters are relatively well surveyed, the biological communities from the deeper seamounts are largely unexplored. Like shallow coral reefs, these habitats represent hot-spots of biological diversity that require a deeper understanding for future conservation and exploratory efforts. 

Located south of the Hawaiian Islands, the Chautauqua Seamount chain comprises seven seamounts measuring between 15 and 25 kilometers across and rising more than 2 kilometers from the 4-kilometer deep abyssal seafloor. Aside from sparse bathymetric and geophysical surveys, these underwater mountains are unsurveyed by ROVs or high-resolution seafloor mapping. Over the course of 16 days, we will generate high-quality bathymetric maps to identify dive targets as well as conduct ROV dives and collect geological samples for later geochemical analysis. As we move into this region, we acknowledge generations of indigenous Hawaiians and today’s stewards of these lands and waters.

The geologic origin of the Chautauqua seamounts remains a question for researchers, and there are several theories including arch volcanism and formation from the Hawaiian mantle plume. As seamount chains provide important markers to paleo-tectonic reconstructions, understanding the origin of the Chautauqua chain through geochemical analyses based on rock samples collected with the ROV will have significant implications. Further, the age of the seamounts present important context for the abundance and grade of rare metals contained in ferromanganese crusts.  The Chautauqua Seamount chain also represents a marine habitat significant to multiple scientific questions, from understanding their role in the genetic flow across ocean habitats to identifying unique evolutionary strategies for benthic organisms that call this area home.