DeepZoo: part 4

DeepZoo ready to be deployed in Eel Pond.

Text and photos by postdoc Johanna Weston

It started with a simple question: “Would there be a way to put a net on a lander, like a windsock?” Answering this question has been a journey that has included finding funding through the Innovative Technology Program, assembling a team of exceptional engineers, getting a titanium housing fabricated and pressure tested to full ocean depth, and learning engineering skills at WHOI’s AVAST. After months of vision and work, DeepZoo has been born as a new instrument.

My end of 2024 focused on getting DeepZoo tested (and retested and retested) in the freshwater test tank at AVAST, affectionally named Ernie. While in the tank, I carefully watched to ensure the door opened at the right time, the thruster turned on at the right time, the thruster shut off when programmed, and the door fully closed.

Once I was visually confident that DeepZoo followed its computer program, it was time to give it some independence.

DeepZoo's first sample

On December 18, 2024, DeepZoo took its first 3-meter and 4-hour swim in Eel Pond, just steps outside the Redfield Building. This felt big. It was going into cold saltwater, not warm freshwater. I couldn’t supervise it – I just had to trust it performed as practiced. While dust particles were collected in DeepZoo’s net in Ernie, I wondered if it would collect any animals in Eel Pond.

At 15:20, I pulled DeepZoo out of the water and quickly grabbed the net. There was orange-blown sediment: something was collected! I washed the net down and got a subsample under the microscope. Copepods swimming! A mite! A gastropod shell!

DeepZoo’s first samples! I wasn’t expecting many zooplankton to be caught in the net, as it is the middle of winter. But seeing some animals shows it can work. I breathed a big sigh of relief and thought, "Wow, maybe this idea and effort will work."

Now in early January 2025, DeepZoo is packed up, with backups and spares, and off to meet the R/V Atlantis in San Diego and dive to 2500 m depths at the East Pacific Rise for 11 days in February. DeepZoo is ready. I am ready (with a healthy dose of confidence and fear). Stay tuned for the next step in DeepZoo’s privileged adventure to become a field-validated deep-ocean instrument.

DeepZoo packed and ready to board R/V Atlantis