The Quest: part 2

Quest's bow

The ROV pressed forward into the darkness. Out of the dim blue haze ahead of its camera, a vertical wall emerged - Quest's hull. The vessel rested upright on the seafloor, with its bow standing proud above the sediment. 

The colors were vibrant. Orange and pink strands hung from the wooden structure like birthday streamers - probably my birthday, given the palette. I leaned forward, stepping off of my chair, to narrow the distance between my face and the screen. I could feel the ROV pilot's eyes shift in my direction as my face hovered over his shoulder. He didn't say anything, but the side-eye showed I had come close enough. Note to self: respect others' personal boundaries, even when there is cool biology in view. 

I sat back in my chair and pondered what I was seeing. The streamers were puzzling. I have seen plenty of marine organisms in my day - gastropods and tunicates and priapulids, polychaetes and crinoids and chaetognaths. Monoplacophorans. Poriferans. Bryozoans. I am utterly fascinated by the diversity of life on this planet, and in my career, I have had opportunities to meet a large swath of animals. But I couldn't put my finger on these fuzzy biological ropes. 

The pilots surveyed the starboard side of the Quest until they felt confident that they had found all possible entanglement hazards. With a basic survey of the ship completed, they were ready to move in closer. 

Soft corals and anemones on Quest's bow

Again, I stepped forward off of my chair. "Don't creep out the pilot," I chanted in my head, standing upright and in my own personal bubble this time. The ROV flew through the dark water until its lights illuminated the bow like daylight. The orange-and-pink streamers had a texture that reminded me of coral tentacles. Were they a hard, reef-building coral? No, not at this latitude. Anemones? No, I saw real anemones right beside the ropes, and they looked totally different. As the ROV advanced slowly up the bow, I focused on the fuzz. Those were definitely tentacles. The tentacles were arranged in rings around tiny little polyps. The polyps were connected to the central ropes...

"Soft corals!" I shouted, pointing my finger forcefully at the screen. "They're soft corals!" 

Several other people in the room looked at me. "They're soft corals," I repeated, retracting my arm and settling softly back into my seat. Beside me, an archaeologist pointed out that some planking was missing from the foredeck, and others nodded along. Did nobody else care that we were looking at soft corals?

"Why are you so excited about the soft corals?" a voice asked to my right. I turned and met the eyes of Peter Cowan, a reporter with CBC News. Peter is one of the media representatives who joined the expedition to share our results with the world, and he's been reporting live from the ship. I leaned over my computer to answer his question, and the next thing I knew, he had me off to the side of the room, in front of a camera, with a microphone on my lapel. 

It has been immensely exciting to be among the first people to see Quest underwater. For more information about Quest's biological community and video clips of the beautiful marine life, check out my full interview with Peter on CBC News: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7267136