News

Cruise diary: During the past two weeks of the MAREANO expedition, several new coral reefs have been discovered. One of them is Pearl Chain Reef (Perlekjederevet) that was found west of the town Sandnessjøen, at a depth of approximately 290 meters. This is a narrow coral reef complex extending over a kilometer in length.

Cruise diary: The ongoing MAREANO cruise has finished surveying the shelf edge south of Skjoldryggen at the mid-Norwegian shelf, and is now concentrating on the shelf edge between Skjoldryggen and Trænadjupet. Sediment samples have been collected from ten locations, including five with multicorer.

Cruise diary: One of the most spectacular creatures that we occasionally encounter down in the deep, cold ocean is the deep-sea seapen Umbellula encrinus. This spectacular organism, resembling a giant plant or exploding fireworks is in actual fact a colony of giant polyps, which are collected in a crown perched atop a stem, of sorts.

Cruise diary: Between stations, the vessel G.O. Sars collects high resolution seismic data using a hull mounted acoustic source (TOPAS). In fine-grained sediments the sound may penetrate 100-150 m. The acoustic pattern gives an indication of the seafloor sediment type, but we also get information about the stratigraphy and geological development.

Cruise diary: On a 700 m long video line on the outer shelf close to the Storegga Slide (Figure 1) numerous blocks of carbonate crust were found at a 400 m long section (Figure 2). The carbonate crust appears to correspond with areas of high backscatter.

Cruise diary: Thanks to the good weather with almost flat sea the mapping around the shelf edge off Trøndelag and Nordland has proceeded nicely without delay. The video documentation and bottom sampling in the southern mapping area is now finished.

During MAREANO’s last biology/geology cruise this year, we will map two areas around the shelf edge off the counties of Trøndelag and Nordland. These areas are located north and south of the ridge called Skjoldryggen.

Cruise diary: Middle reaches of the Barents Sea are characterized by large mudflats which provide habitat for many exciting benthic species, and also provide clear evidence of destructive fishing activity. We have frequently observed cod, haddock, and some dead fish specimens. In some areas the seabed has been substantially altered by trawling activity.

Cruise diary: Yet another successful MAREANO cruise has been completed. After 14 days at sea, and a 40-hour return voyage from key regions of the Barents Sea, R/V G.O. Sars docked in Tromsø on Thursday morning (06/18/2015).

Cruise diary: Despite large amounts of “marine snow” and a gel-like layer covering bottom sediments, the seafloor in central parts of the Barents Sea is teeming with life.  Here MAREANO is currently taking samples, and conducting video transects. Regardless of one day with stormy weather conditions, we remain on schedule.

MAREANOs first video station of 2015 documented a conspicuous seabed structure, about 300 km north-northeast of mainland Norway, known as The Helmet. The circular structure which looks like the top of a helmet sticking out of the seabed is 30 m high and has a diameter of 800 m.

Cruise diary: Now we are well underway with visual inspection and sampling of the seabed at this year’s first MAREANO cruise.

Cruise diary: MAREANO's first cruise of 2015 set sail from Tromsø last Friday bound for the new Norwegian area of the Barents Sea. Sixteen scientists and technicians will spend the next two weeks onboard the research vessel G.O. Sars, investigating one of the world's richest seas. The benthic environment and faunal communities over an area of 12 000 km² is to be sampled while a total of 44 line kilometers across 60 sites will be filmed with high resolution video.

MAREANO’s 2015 geological, biological and chemical field sampling will take place at the shelf slope off mid-Norway in the Norwegian Sea, and in the Barents Sea along the Russian-Norwegian shelf border. Bathymetric data are being acquired in the Barents Sea along the Russian-Norwegian shelf border and patch-wise along a ca. 500 km long transect from Bjørnøyrenna to Kong Karls Land as well as at the shelf slope off mid-Norway and Stadhavet in the Norwegian Sea.

The bottom currents have a large impact on the sea floor and the animals that live there. It is difficult to measure the bottom currents over large areas, but improved models have now opened up the ability to estimate the bottom currents at reasonable accuracy. In MAREANO, the results are used in mapping the nature types.

A number of different coral reefs have been discovered in waters off the Norwegian coast. The Røst Reef off Norway’s Lofoten Islands is the world's largest known Lophelia reef. That these corals almost encircle the entire North Atlantic is more unknown.

MAREANO continues with bathymetric mapping in the Barents Sea in 2015. An open procedure of the tender competition for the procurement of Bathymetry data acquisition and processing for the MAREANO programme was published 8 December 2014.

A new biotope map for the area including Troms III and the shelf edge to west Finnmark is now available on MAREANO's map service.

Cruise diary: MAREANO's last biology-geology-pollution mapping cruise this season is finished, and once more we have had good weather in the Barents Sea. Thus, we have finished all cruise activities that were planned for this year, in addition to making a small start on next year's tasks.

Cruise diary: This newsletter has been written by all the biologists onboard the G.O.Sars at the last biogy and geology cruise in 2014. Each biologist has picked her favourite photo from the work on this cruise, and they have written a story for that picture.  There are many different voices here, this reflects both the diversity we see in the benthic communities – and the diversity among the biologists.

Cruise diary: The Mareano 3 cruise also includes deployment of a new type of underwater glider - a 'SeaExplorer' - to complete a north-south transect of the Barents Sea. Two guests from the LOCEAN laboratory in Paris are on board the G.O. Sars for the deployment: glider engineer Michael Field and PhD student Laurent Oziel. The SeaExplorer was successfully deployed from the rescue boat on 2 September.

Cruise diary: 700 meters is almost as long as twice around a sport-field. It is also the length of one MAREANO video-transect. In some areas all 700 meters will look much the same, but other times we observe large variations along the line. This is the story about a transect with lots of changes.

MAREANO video footage crossing a long, elongated cliff north of Varangerhalvøya has shown the presence of irregular holes in the seabed. Strange white features occur at the bottom of the holes and in two larger depressions.

One unexpected finding as MAREANO completed data collection along the Finnmark coast has been the presence of shell sand at more than three hundred metres water depth, off Nordkapp.

Cruise diary: This week marks the start of the third and last MAREANO cruise in 2014. Onboard R/V G.O. Sars, we find 16 enthusiastic researchers and technicians who are all ready to examine the seafloor of the Finnmark coast and the SE Norwegian part of the Barents Sea.

Over the past five years MAREANO has conducted several mapping cruises along the coast of Finnmark. Starting in August 2014, the third and final MAREANO cruise of the year will map the remaining areas in the coastal belt, focusing on areas north of Sørøya, Magerøya and Nordkinnhalvøya.

The MAREANO cruise was undertaken to survey the sea floor at Storegga, Norwegian Sea. In order to achieve this we took a multitude of video stations coupled with a few beam trawls, RP nets, grabs and cores.

Last autumn MAREANO scientists documented the geology and biology of the southern part of Storegga, which lies at the edge of the continental shelf in mid-Norway. Now we are back to complete the journey through this fascinating underwater landscape, armed with new multibeam data that complete the picture of the terrain on the shelf.

A more updated look and easier navigation is the most visible changes in the new map service on www.mareano.no. With a few keystrokes, you can create your own maps based on interest.

VIDEO: During the MAREANO-survey April 13–26 a large number of king crabs were observed at about 40 m depth just off the village Berlevåg in the northernmost Norwegian county Finnmark. It is well-known that the king crab thrive in this area and was on its way towards deeper waters after a short trip to quite shallow depths where hatching, spawning and mating take place at this time of the year.