Personal submersibles offer novel ecological research access to Antarctic waters: an example, with observations of the rarely encountered scyphozoan Stygiomedusa gigantea

• Published in: Polar Research
• Main Authors: Daniel M. Moore, Anne Elina Flink, Eva Prendergast, Antony Gilbert
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Norwegian Polar Institute 2023
• Subjects: submarine; polar; medusa; citizen science; jellyfish; tourism; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Oceanography; GC1-1581; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Medusa; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Polar Research
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v42.8873; https://doaj.org/article/a892bce196dc40fd9b8aa0f58a8a4bba

Underwater biological surveys have been conducted around the Antarctic continent for several decades, and our knowledge of the species present in the shallow waters (<50 m) is reasonably comprehensive. However, the waters below 50 m remain underexplored on the account of difficulty of access, financial barriers and relatively few operational platforms capable of deployment to such depths. Here, we demonstrate that personal submersibles, now increasingly deployed by the expedition cruise industry, can be vessels of opportunity for biological research in the polar regions. We describe direct observations of the rarely encountered scyphozoan Stygiomedusa gigantea at water depths of 80–280 m in Antarctic Peninsula coastal waters as an example of the potential that personal submersibles present for the scientific community, and we outline possible research avenues for utilizing these platforms in the future.