After 26 days at sea, the 1218S JNCC and Marine Scotland
survey is complete! What a whirlwind four weeks we have had. Scientists on
board the MRV Scotia have travelled nearly 3,000 kilometres, collected over
3,800 photographs, recorded over 113 hours of video footage of the seabed and
collected and processed 47 grab samples from Faroe Shetland Sponge Belt NCMPA.
In doing so we have met all our primary objectives for the survey!
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| 'Ping-Pong' Tree Sponge (Chondrocladia) © JNCC/MSS 2018 |
We have documented a huge variety of marine life and
habitats across these sites, ranging from the deep-sea sponges of Rosemary Bank Seamount and Faroe
Shetland Sponge Belt MPAs, to corals and iceberg ploughmark rocky habitats at Wyville Thomson Ridge SAC. As
showcased in our previous blogs, the diversity of the marine life we have seen
has been staggering!
Reflecting on this, JNCC monitoring lead for
the survey and on-ship data guru Chris McCabe said, "the survey was incredibly exciting, seeing
some of the extraordinary species in the deep sea of the Wyville-Thompson Ridge
SAC from our camera tows was a fantastic experience".
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| Beautiful sunrise as the MRV Scotia approaches Aberdeen © JNCC/MSS 2018 |
The data we have collected will form a crucial part of a dataset
that will be used to monitor how these diverse habitats change over time.
In summary, I am glad to report that thanks to the hard work
of our Marine Scotland Science colleagues, the crew and our own scientists,
this survey has been a success. Please check back in with us for more survey
blogging when we next go to sea, but for now we are excited to begin working up
the data collected!
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| Welcome home! JNCC staff return from a successful survey with Marine Scotland Science © JNCC/MSS 2018 |
Keep an eye out for the results and progress of the data we
have collected on our JNCC Twitter feed
with #1218S!
Survey Fun Fact:
Did you know that the aptly-named ‘Ping-Pong’ Tree Sponge (Chondrocladia) is carnivorous? As a member
of the Cladorhizidae family of carnivorous demosponges, it survives by catching
small crustaceans and small fish with hook-like features covering the ball-like
surfaces.
Read more here:
Written by Jessica Taylor
Images Copyright JNCC/MSS 2018
