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DEEP SEARCH: Deep Sea Exploration to Advance Research on Coral/Canyon/Cold Seep Habitats
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The NF-19-09 expedition on board the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster was part of the multi-year
Deep SEARCH project. This cruise occurred from October 21 to October 30, 2019. The
cruise will focus on several seep sites, canyons, and hard bottom features located
less than 100 nm offshore. This is the third research expedition associated with the
Deep SEARCH project focused on exploring and characterizing seeps, corals, and canyon
environments along the Atlantic margin. This project is a collaboration among three
federal agencies: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration
and Research (OER), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). TDI Brooks with academic
partners has been selected to serve as BOEM contractor for this study. Data gathered
during this mission and past cruises for this project will help inform multiple management
issues concerning this region. The goal of this expedition was to recover benthic
lander deployments, conduct mid-water trawling of the deep-scattering layer, collect
water samples for christry and microbial diversity analyses, perform multibeam mapping
at specific targeted areas, and collect sediment, water, and faunal samples for eDNA
work.
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