DeepZoo: part 5

Text and photos by postdoc Johanna Weston

First day of school drop-off energy. That is how I felt about securing DeepZoo to the lander for its first deep ocean deployment on the first day of the cruise, AT50-33 at 9N of the East Pacific Rise. Did I input action times in UTC correctly? Did I close the housing correctly? Is DeepZoo secured tightly enough to the frame to withstand the force when the lander hits the seafloor? What if the lander doesn’t come back to the surface?

All these questions and more flooded my mind. DeepZoo needs to open its door, turn on the thruster, turn off the thruster, and then close the door.

Deep breaths.

The lander was raised off the deck. The lander was released into the water. The lander sank to ~2500 m on the seafloor. The human-occupied submersible Alvin found the lander on the seafloor. Alvin picked the lander up and drove it several meters away from the recently discovered YBW vent. DeepZoo’s door opened, the thruster turned on for 20.5 hours, and then the door closed. The lander rose to the surface. A bird and the crew spotted it. The lander was hoisted onto the deck.

I carried over a bucket of cold filtered seawater. I unclipped the six clasps, just as I envisioned during the design process. I took out the middle piece, which has the “net.” I looked down at the mesh.

It was BROWN.

Instantly, I knew the door had opened, the thruster had turned on and off, and the door had closed to retain the samples. I felt immense JOY!

I walked the bucket back to the cold room, rinsed down the mesh, sieved the water over a 63-micron sieve, and then rinsed with filtered seawater. I pipetted some of the water into a petri dish and looked at it under the microscope. Animals! Small gastropods!

DEEPZOO WORKED!!

DeepZoo then worked on its subsequent two deployments out of a deep-ocean scientist’s dream—the science basket of ALVIN!

While on Alvin, DeepZoo visited Tica Vent (Alvin Dive# 5290), getting an up-close look at Riftia tube worms. Next, DeepZoo explored newly discovered inactive sulfide vents (Alvin Dive# 5294). Each time the door opened, the thruster turned on and off, and the door closed.

Deep ocean science has challenges. It requires strong engineering to make something that will function under the immense hydrostatic pressure of the deep ocean. It requires a whole ship and skilled crew to get you to the study site. It requires expensive vehicles to get the sampler to a specific location. It requires the sampler to work at the bottom of the ocean. It requires immense focus and work. Most importantly, it requires courage and luck to send it over the side and hope it comes back.

I am so proud of DeepZoo’s success during its first three deployments. It's a tribute to all the work it took this year to design, build, and test it. I am so thankful to the team of WHOI engineers who brought DeepZoo to life. Special thanks to Casey Machado, AVAST for being a space to innovate new tools, the National Science Foundation for funding the larger project to get to the East Pacific Rise on the R/V Atlantis and Alvin, and the Innovative Technology Program and Access to the Sea program for funding DeepZoo and field verification.

I'm looking forward to DeepZoo’s next adventure - the Mar del Plata Submarine Canyon off Argentina on the R/V Falkor (too).