Leg 1 of VISIONS 2025 (completed August 15) was successful in achieving all of the planned science objectives, and two recovery dives at the end that were originally scheduled for Leg 2. During the 12 days at sea the ship went to all of the Regional Cabled Array sites. The ROV Jason completed 27 dives. All the instrument packages on three Shallow Profiler Moorings were turned, 27 core instruments were recovered, 12 core instruments were deployed, and 5 CTD rosette casts and 22 ROV mounted Niskins were collected for instrument verification and calibration.
The R/V Atlantis departed Newport, OR on the cloudy morning of August 4 with a party consisting of seven science staff, seven engineers, and eight students. The weather conditions for the first few days of the cruise were calm, allowing us to hit the ground running. In short succession, a thorough ship safety meeting was followed by Jason control van training, and a CTD/rosette training before immediately jumping into a CTD cast and recovery dive on the Shallow Profiler Mooring at our first site, Oregon Offshore. We then moved to Slope Base, where we did another CTD cast and also swapped packages on the Shallow Profiler Mooring. Our first seafloor operation was also at Slope Base during which we swapped the HPIES instrument, a spaghetti monster looking contraption that measures the vertical structure of the overlying water. Our next operations took us to Axial Seamount for another Shallow Profiler Mooring, the swap of instruments at the base of Axial Base (~2600 m depth), the swap of the high-definition video camera and a conductivity, temperature, and pressure sensor, and the recovery of an uncabled, osmotic fluid sampler. At Axial Seamount we also got our first glimpse at the hydrothermal vents in the Axial Caldera since last year. This was a very exciting moment for our VISIONS’25 students for whom the ASHES Hydrothermal Vent Field was their first time seeing underwater hot springs and the amazing life forms that thrive within these novel environments.
The calm weather didn’t last forever. A high-pressure system brought increased wind and waves to our work sites and left behind a large and unpredictable swell that impacted our ability to dive, particularly at night for the middle of the leg. The team was highly flexible with these challenges, moving between sites and switching to dives without packages or dives with lighter packages to continue operations until weather improved. The calm conditions returned for our last two days allowing us to complete the last few operations before returning to Newport.
Those operations included multibeam sonar surveying and diving at Southern Hydrate Ridge, a methane hydrate seep, that like hydrothermal vents, supports a thriving ecosystem. Once again, the sonar imaged active bubble plumes emanating SHR, and we were treated to seeing the source of one of these very active bubble plumes on the seafloor during the second dive at the site. The VISIONS’25 students were also very eager to see another novel chemosynthetic environment. Operations at the site included swapping the digital still camera and recovering three uncabled, osmotic samplers. When all scheduled work for Leg 1 was completed, the R/V Atlantis headed to the Oregon Shelf site where the zooplankton sonar and junction box at the site were recovered. With those last two dives complete, the ship returned to Newport under rainy skies. Leg 2 will begin on August 17th, a new group of scientists and students will share their amazing experiences onboard the R/V Atlantis.
Extensive research cruises like ours require meticulous planning and involve many moving parts and employ experts in a wide range of science and engineering. It is one of the most novel opportunities for undergraduate students and other interested parties to be introduced to ocean field experience. It is no small feat for these novices to stand watch, log every ROV dive, assist with laboratory analysis, run taglines for a CTD/Rosette, and all the while think about projects for the accompanying fall class. Every year we ask a new group to join us on the seas and work alongside our team of scientists and engineers. They leave their homes and live with us, the ship’s crew, and ROV Jason team who all work so diligently 24 hours every day, and they do so enthusiastically. The Leg 1 VISIONS’25 students have taken to the ship and the work with passion, curiosity, and smiles. They’ve been eager to help with everything from cleaning instruments, to taking samples, and even help pack and move boxes while in port. In addition to their shifts in the logging van, helping with CTD casts or around the lab, they have also participated in daily meetings where they have created a list of people they are interested in hearing from who then come and talk to them if their schedule allows. The Leg 1 students’ daily meeting speakers highlight their curiosity in the full range of activities happening on the ship, having heard from a geologist, two APL engineers, one of the ship’s cooks, the captain, and a member of the Jason team. Tomorrow they will return to Seattle, then home, a bittersweet experience, but many with a newfound excitement and passion for the ocean, the incredible ecosystems found within, and how to study them.