MapGES 2022 Cruise Report: Exploration and mapping of deep-sea biodiversity in the Azores, summer 2022

• Main Authors: Morato, Telmo, Dominguez-Carrió, Carlos, Gomes, Sérgio, Rodrigues, Luis, Gonçalves, Guilherme, Carneiro, Inês, Ramos, Manuela, Carreiro-Silva, Marina
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2022
• Subjects: deep-sea; exploration; cold-water corals; deep-sea sponges; vulnerable marine ecosystems; cachalote
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7075749

Main objective : MapGES 2022 is the continuation of our long-term strategy to map deep-sea biodiversity and identify Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs) in the Azores using the Azor drift-cam video system. This year, we operated from the RV Arquipélago and were lucky to finally explore some long-awaited areas such as the Diogo de Teive and Cachalote seamounts, the Flores island slopes (western Azores), but also the Girard, Maria Celeste, Formigas and Margrette seamounts and the island slopes of Santa Maria (eastern Azores). As in other MapGES cruises, the objectives were to (i) map benthic communities inhabiting unexplored seamounts, ridges and island slopes, (ii) identify new areas that fit the FAO definition of what constitutes a Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem (VME); and (iii) determine distribution patterns of deep-sea benthic biodiversity in the Azores region. The results of this cruise, when added to the previous contributions, will help identify what are the main environmental drivers that determine the spatial distribution of deep-sea benthic fauna in the Azores. This cruise also provided valuable information in the context of Good Environmental Status (GES), Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and provided new insights on how to sustainably manage deep-sea ecosystems. Methodology: We performed several underwater video transects along the seafloor with the Azor drift-cam, a low-cost drifting camera system designed and developed at IMAR & Okeanos (University of the Azores), which allows the recording of high-quality underwater video images of the seabed down to 1000 m depth. The system was deployed from the research vessel RV Arquipélago, owned by the Government of the Azores. Scientific team in Leg 1 : Telmo Morato (chief scientist), Sérgio Gomes, Luís Rodrigues, Guilherme Gonçalves, Inês Carneiro Scientific team in Leg 2 : Telmo Morato and Carlos Dominguez-Carrió (chief scientists), Sérgio Gomes, Luís Rodrigues, Guilherme Gonçalves, Manuela Ramos Cruise summary: The MapGES 2022 survey was divided in 2 legs, ...