Part 6: A modern day Beagle returns

Sampling has officially finished. Overall, 82 different sites were occupied during CEAMARC, with samples collected from at least 78 sites; well in excess of the 67 sites we had hoped for. Our focus has been on the benthic organisms below 200 metres. Our grand tally is 106 trawls and 114 grab or box-corer deployments.

Each station has been fully documented. Each specimen is now numbered, measured and where possible identified, and tissue samples filed to grow cultures from. There is a large file of underwater video footage and still camera images showing the habitat at key stations. The specimens will be sent to experts at universities and museums around the world for identification, tissue sampling and bar coding of their DNA. Not all of the creatures found could be identified and new species might be recorded.

In time, as the information is interpreted and analysed, the stories will emerge of which plants and animals live together and how dense those populations are. We will learn where fish grow and what their feeding and reproductive patterns are and the secrets of species evolution and adaptation in this extreme environment.
For the first time we will have a benchmark to monitor the impact of environmental change in a place that is so sensitive to warming that it will act as an important ‘canary in the mine’ for the rest of the planet.

> Share the journey: Read Margot Foster's diary (PDF)