Here we report on the preliminary results from Environmental Impact Assessment Campaigns 5b and 5e of the vessel Maersk Launcher, contracted by The Metals Company (formerly Deep Green), from 28 February to 22 April (5b) and 11 November to 19 December (5e) 2021. Data on the gelatinous zooplankton community was collected using ROV Odysseus (Pelagic Research Services) from the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), within the NORI-D license block (State sponsor: The Republic of Nauru). Horizontal transects at various depth horizons, including the proposed depth for release of a midwater sediment plume, were conducted during both day and night. The ROV video was analyzed using the Squidle-based annotation system co-developed by JAMSTEC/GreyBits Engineering, and Exemplar images for training of both humans and machines were captured with environmental metadata into a relational database to also be used for developing a machine-learning-assisted analysis pipeline to use in future studies. Voucher specimens collected by the ROV were sequenced to investigate connectivity between midwater ecoregions. Preliminary results characterizing the abundant and diverse midwater gelatinous zooplankton assemblage will be introduced.

Primary Presenter: Dhugal Lindsay, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) (dhugal@jamstec.go.jp)

Authors:

Dhugal Lindsay, JAMSTEC  (dhugal@jamstec.go.jp)

Javier Montenegro, JAMSTEC  ()

Leah Bergman, Kitasato University  ()

Mehul Sangekar, JAMSTEC  ()

Erik Thuesen, Evergreen State College  ()

Charlotte Seid, Scripps  ()

Greg Rouse, Scripps  ()

Tiffany Bachtel, CALCOFI  ()

Jeffrey Drazen, University of Hawaii  ()