Geike Slide and Hebridean Slope NCMPA Survey
Goodbye Geikie Slide

Hello once more from the Scotia, where our survey has drawn to a close. We have now begun our journey back to Aberdeen, on Scotland’s East coast, from Geikie Slide and the Hebridean Slope Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area, which is situated seaward of the Outer Hebrides to the west of Scotland.

Leaving Geike Slide and the Hebridean Slope NCMPA in our wake

All is quiet at the sieving station as we pass the Isle of Lewis (Outer Hebrides)

We have had a great few weeks out here and have collected a lot of really useful information about this Marine Protected Area. Thanks to the persistent hard work of the crew and scientists aboard, and our continuing good luck with weather, we will have  a comprehensive dataset describing the animals we have found (some of which have been mentioned and shown in previous blogs), and the seabed habitats which support them. This dataset will be used to help monitor change within this Marine Protected Area into the future.

We have collected data from 5 different survey areas (Boxes A, C, D, E and F as shown in the map). The black crosses indicate survey “stations” where we collected both box core samples and drop-frame camera transects, the blue crosses where we collected box core samples only, and the gold crosses show where we collected drop-frame camera transects only. In total, we have collected 56 box core samples and completed 58 dropframe camera transects, as well as one camera chariot transect (green line).

Survey “stations” completed at Geikie Slide and the Hebridean Slope NCMPA

We have also encountered fish, whales, dolphins and seabirds such as gannets, skuas, kittiwakes and puffins, and a seal; a sign of the productivity, and hence importance, of this site.

It is with many thanks to the captain and crew of the MRV Scotia and our Marine Scotland Science colleagues for all their efforts on this survey that we say farewell for now. Please check back with us next time for more seabed survey action!

Left to right: Marine Scotland Science Scientist in Charge Eric Armstrong and (mostly) JNCC survey scientists Hannah Carr, Ellen Last, Bethany Graves, Kent Tebbutt (Benthic Solutions Ltd), Pete Chaniotis and Joey O’Connor (in front).

By Joey O'Connor
All images copyright to JNCC & Marine Scotland Science

Geike Slide and Hebridean Slope NCMPA Survey
Dawn of the Pteropods

As we previously mentioned, there is a vast array of creatures that have been found within the sediment samples brought up by the box corer. So far we have found: crabs and squat lobsters of varying sizes - some extremely tiny, starfish and brittlestars, many different worms (from the small and thin to larger thicker peanut worms), worm casts (heaps of sediment ejected by worms), urchins, sea cucumbers, amphipods (a type of small crustacean), cup corals, sponges, bryozoans (small filter feeders that live in colonies and look like moss), and many shells including pteropod shells.

Pteropods are a type of marine mollusc that are related to snails. Instead of crawling along a surface like the snails in your garden, they use a modified foot to swim. This allows them to hunt for food in the water column. Pteropods are an important food source for many of deep sea fish, such as the ones we have seen on the camera tows.

Pteropod shells in sandy mud sample

Some of the creatures listed above are in the snapshot of sample images below.

  

Left photo: Final sieved sample with starfish
Right photo: Small crabs from one of the muddy cores

  
Left photo: A peanut worm
Right photo: Orange urchin and cup coral

  

Left photo: Boulder with encrusting blue sponge
Right photo: Final sieved sample with starfish and shells


By Hannah Carr & Bethany Graves
All images copyright to JNCC & Marine Scotland Science

Geike Slide and Hebridean Slope NCMPA Survey

Into the (very) deep

After completing camera work on the mid-point of the Hebridean slope, it was time to begin our descent into even deeper realms. At an average depth of 1500m below sea level, sampling stations are over three times deeper than the locations previously sampled - bringing with it its own challenges, such as the amount of time it takes to get to the sea floor to collect samples.

As we commenced our first camera tow, we waited to see what kind of creatures we might encounter on arrival at the sea floor. Even the journey down was a fascinating experience, where we were faced with a thick soup of plankton in the water column dancing on the video screen in front of us. After just a few tows, we encountered a range of marine life including chimaera (a type of fish that’s related to sharks), rat tail fish, bright orange anemones, xenophyophores (the largest single-celled organism known to science - some species can grow up to 25cm wide!), beautiful sun stars and a hermit crab with a parasitic anemone on its shell.

  
Left photo: A starfish with a vibrant orange anemone
Right photo: A Xenophyophore, the largest single-celled organism known to science

    
Left photo: Pencil urchins with a burrowing anemone
Right photo: An anemone hitches a ride on the back of a hermit crab

   
Left photo: A blood red cushion star
Right photo: Chimaera monstrosa, also known as a rabbitfish


A menacing looking rat tail. Its eyes are glowing due to the lights on the camera system.

A breather between camera tows brought with it an exciting wildlife watching opportunity. Swimming before us was a pod of at least 20 pilot whales, including calves. We were even lucky enough to see some spy-hopping!

Pilot whales

One of the pilot whales indulging in a spot of spy-hopping

The sun sets on day one of deep-sea exploration

As the sun set on our first bout of deep-water exploration, we waited to see what further discoveries the night shift (with Betty the box corer) would uncover about this site. 

By Ellen Last & Pete Chaniotis

All images copyright to JNCC & Marine Scotland Science

It’s all about Betty…

We have now completed our first four night shifts of box coring within the Geikie Slide and the Hebridean Slope Nature Conservation MPA. We have affectionately named our box corer companion Betty. Betty is a piece of equipment that can be used in deep-sea muds to extract a sample of the seabed in an intact state, retaining the structure of the sediment, and giving us a ‘snapshot’ of the seabed hundreds of meters below sea level (you can see a picture of Betty being deployed on the previous blog entry).

We have been sampling at a range of depths from 600 to 950 meters - the deeper areas can sometimes take half an hour for Betty to reach the seabed. Once Betty returns to the surface we wait with baited breath to see whether she has managed to collect a valid sample. When this gets the thumbs up, the team can start processing. Processing can take up to three hours depending on the habitat type - some of the mud we are encountering is very thick and sticky! The top 15cm of sediment is extracted from Betty and goes through an automated siever called the Wilson Auto Siever (WAS). We also start to sieve by hand to speed up the process. This removes fine material (i.e. mud and clay), leaving us with the important critters that were living both on and in the seabed. These will be sent off to a lab for identification once we return to dry land.

You may think the night shift staff drew the short straw having to work from midnight to midday, but there are actually some positives to sieving on deck through the night

1. being in the fresh sea air;
2. seeing the sun both set and rise;
3. enjoying your morning coffee accompanied by whales, seabirds and sunfish;
4. finding cool deep-sea animals in the samples.

More on these in our next blog!                                                                                                  

The night shift staff doing what they do best: sieving!

© JNCC/MSS (2016)

Two sunfish surrounded by Fulmars on the surface.
© JNCC/MSS (2016)

A baleen whale sighted in the distance.
© JNCC/MSS (2016)

Survey work begins on the mid-point of the Hebridean Slope

It’s 7.30pm on 19^th July and we have just arrived on site to begin our survey work within the Geikie Slide and Hebridean Slope Nature Conservation MPA. With the camera drop-frame all rigged up, we begin the descent into depths of our first priority area; positioned in approximately 600 to 800m of water on the mid-point of the Hebridean Slope.

Having ‘bagged’ just five 150m-long camera tows of seabed imagery, the first thing we noticed was just how diverse these sampling stations less than a few miles apart can actually be at this depth; from fine sandy muds pitted with burrows of crustaceans, to coarser sediments where feeding tracks of echinoderms and an abundance of tiny brittlestars can be seen. We were also greeted by a number of deep-water fish species including Molva sp. and Lophius sp. In one particular shot of a lonely boulder we found an abundance of life; including large barnacles feeding, pencil urchins and anemones.

As midnight approached, it was time to try our hand at the box coring, a sampling technique that allows us to take a sample of the seabed for more detailed analysis. More to follow on this in our next blog instalment! Stay tuned...

Box corer deployment. © JNCC/MSS (2016)

Monkfish (Lophius sp) on coarse sediment. © JNCC/MSS (2016)

Abundant brittlestars on coarse sediment. © JNCC/MSS (2016)

                                       Boulder with squat lobster, anemones, pencil urchins                                          and feeding barnacles. © JNCC/MSS (2016)

Geikie Sliders are go!

JNCC and Marine Scotland Science staff set sail on the RV Scotia on the morning of Monday 18^th July for a 17 day scientific survey to establish the first point in monitoring time series at Geikie Slide and Hebridean Slope Nature Conservation MPA. The MPA, one of the 30 Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) designated in July 2014, is located on the Hebridean continental slope; north-west of the Outer Hebrides.

The MPA, which in part is named after the famous Scottish geologist Sir Archibald Geikie, is designated to protect a range of sedimentary habitat types that are home to a diverse array of marine animals.

What is particularly special about this site from a biological viewpoint is the way that marine animals present on the Hebridean slope change with depth. On the upper slope where sediments are much coarser, we may expect to survey communities typical of rocky reefs such as sponges and crinoids (e.g. feather stars). Further down into the murky depths of the site towards the Rockall Trough, we can expect to find muddier habitats where communities of the bushy sea pen and large burrowing crustaceans call this environment their home.

In this relatively data limited site, we plan to use a combination of video tows to better characterise the range of communities present across different depth zones within the site, as well as taking samples of the seabed using a grabbing device known as a box corer. Having completed a successful ‘wet test’ of the equipment near Fraserburgh, the survey team are now all set to spring into action once we reach our survey destination: ETA 7pm on 19^th July.

Further information on the Geikie Slide and Hebridean Slope Nature Conservation MPA is available on JNCC’s Site Information Centre.

© JNCC (2016)