NOAA Dives Deep into Oil & Gas Interest Zone and Says Life is Teaming

Northern Neighbors: Transboundary Exploration of Deepwater Communities

“Waters of the Atlantic Ocean shared by US and Canada are bursting with life,” new NOAA study revealed.

On June 21 NOAA reported that “the End (of the 15 day Mission in the North East Atlantic) was only the Beginning”. So much data was collected that scientists assure will take weeks or months -even years to analyze data, samples and complete the map they have sonar-ed out.

NOAA´s Mission “Northern Neighbors: Transboundary Exploration of Deepwater Communities” took to detailed study of one of the newest hotspots in the expansion of the search of new ocean resources.

Oil and Gas have had their eye on these waters for long years. NOAA scientists took a long detailed look at these most coveted deep waters.

What did they find?  The deep Atlantic North East is teaming with life.

Today part of this region is protected under the Atlantic’s First Marine National Monument created in 2015 by President Obama.

But when NOAA scientists hit the waters hard their focus not on politics but on the ROVs command and screen data onboard. Corals, geology, canyons, deep coral species, fisheries interest species, mud samples, these were top priorities and turned out early shining glows of occult treasures in the depths of the North Atlantic.   

The 15 day NOAA Mission kicked depart port on June 8. It covered a vast area reaching out from the Northeast US to the Atlantic Canada. The Gulf of Maine was also part of the Mission.

Dr. Martha Nizinski Chief Scientist at NOAA logged on the return to home port days. “As luck would have it, the fog had lifted, the sun came out, and the seas began to lay down. We should have a smooth ride back to Newport. As the ship changes course to head for home, it is important to take an inventory of all we have accomplished. We have collected 180 hours of video which is equivalent to about four terabytes of imagery. We also have a total of 199 numbered samples collected by the remotely operated vehicle ROPOS. The samples include push cores (mud samples); Niskin bottles (water samples); and physical specimens of corals, sponges, anemones, cephalopods, and other invertebrates associated with the corals”.

Now all data collected will support new and ongoing research projects. For example, one Primnoa coral sample was sub-sampled and will be analyzed by at least five investigators.

The NOAA map once concluded will include information ranging from water to underwater soil studies to geological characteristics, specie occurrence, taxonomy and even genetics through tissue samples. Past climate data records, microbiology expands this new cove.  

By June 18 it became pretty obvious that one of the main stars of the Mission were non other than squids. Massive schools of the unique to the region Illex Squid (living nowhere else on this planet but in this region) surrounded NOAA´s ROVs curiously throughout the dive at George´s Canyon Canada site.

“We have been seeing a lot of cephalopods on this cruise, and they never fail to elicit shouts of “squid!” from the control room as they are encountered and either jet away or pose for the camera,” the crew logged live into NOAA's site.  

“Cephalopods took center stage as we entered Canadian waters and moved into Corsair and Georges Canyons. The star of the show was a seemingly never-ending school of Illex illecebrosus, the commercially important short-finned squid. This species is the squiddy-est of the squids. The shape, size, and life cycle of Illex are often the benchmark by which all other squids are judged,” the crew explained.

“This is the squid that you eat if you like calamari,” they added. Between the US and Canada fisheries every year catch as much as 7.5 thousands tons of this squid or more.  

Illex illecebrosus, AKA Northern Shortfin Squid or Boston squid is only found in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, from off the coast of eastern North America to Greenland, Iceland, and west of Ireland and the United Kingdom. They are a highly migratory and short-lived species, with lifespans of less than a year. They are commercially important and are fished extensively (primarily by the United States and Canada), mostly for the Canadian and Japanese markets.

The Food and Agriculture Organization FAO of the United Nations explains the Interest to Fisheries of the Boston Squid.

“Two large international fisheries exist: one in the bays of Newfoundland using jigs and jigging machines in depths from 0 to 30 m, and occasionally otter trawls (during summer and early autumn); and an extensive otter trawl fishery along part of eastern Canada and the USA on the shelf and upper slope, and around submarine canyons in depths from 100 to 250 meters. Japan and Canada are the two countries taking the greatest share of these catches.The species is in high demand as bait in the autumn cod fishery off Newfoundland because it does not soak and fall off the hooks as fast as finfish bait. Its flesh is also of good food quality although it is high in water content and deteriorates easily. It is therefore processed (but not as salted-fermented 'siokara') or sold immediately fresh. It commands a price approximately 60% of that for Todarodes pacificus .The total catch reported for this species to FAO for 1999 was 7,950 tons. The countries with the largest catches were USA (7,334 tons) and Canada (313 tons).

North East Atlantic waters are not joke even for the most skilled sailors. These waters are considered one of the most dangerous -yet rich to fish waters in the World. The reward exceeds the risk by the many folds.  

NOAA experienced these turbulent rough seas first hand but even in these conditions they were in Non-Stop Mode.

“When the seas got too rough for ROPOS, we continued to support the objectives of the cruise by multibeam mapping the seafloor. By the end of the cruise, we mapped 230 square kilometers of seafloor in both U.S. and Canadian waters,” NOAA Team assures.

Deep Sea Corals were another star of the show. Deep Sea Corals areas were registered in canyons, continental slope and seamounts.

Dense and extensive “coral gardens” have been observed at only 200-250 meters depth, especially in areas of high vertical relief.

“Today’s dive certainly did not disappoint: in several previously unexplored high-relief bumps or outcrops, we found beautiful and magnificent assemblages of Primnoa and Paramuricea; some of these areas of densely packed coral colonies went on for tens of meters. But there’s another telltale difference between the Gulf’s coral habitats and those in the canyons: the amount and types of fish associated with them. In the canyons, you’ll find many deepwater fishes, like the abundant cutthroat eels, as well as some commercially important ones, like Acadian redfish or monkfish. In the Gulf of Maine, you’ll find many more of our commercially important fish and shellfish species, including redfish, haddock, cod, and silver hake,” NOAA crew explained the importance of sightings.

“The high densities of Paramuricea and Primnoa observed today in the relatively shallow waters of the Gulf of Maine are unique off the northeast United States. The proximity of these habitats to shore increases the likelihood that they are important for our commercially important fish, thus increasing the need to protect and preserve these fragile habitats,” they kicked it.

The entire objective of the NOAA mission was to provide sound science as foundation for dissertation, scientific papers, fill in the data gaps, be used in broad-scale projects, used in new specie studies and other scientific international efforts.

“Additionally, the multibeam data and select images have been shared with the New England Fishery Management Council and Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada to aid in management decisions,” NOAA adds.

For decades North East Atlantic proposed energy exploration has as National Geographic explains “Sparked Concern over Ocean Canyons”. President Obama put a partial-halt to this movement of exploration by creating the First National Monument in the Atlantic.

Commercial fishing and other types of extraction in a series of deep canyons and extinct undersea volcanoes that are found more than 150 miles off southern New England, along and beyond the continental shelf were banned. The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument expands 4.9 thousand square miles. But this is just part of the wider region of interest. Today more and more private investment is pushing to take control of the area.

“The Northwest Atlantic continental shelf and slope are significant both for their biological assemblages, which include important fisheries species, and for their other natural resources, such as oil and gas,” NOAA kicks it.

NOAA assures that the health of the ocean and fisheries depends on sound science and management on an international scale.