AMS Participates in Expedition to Davidson Seamount
AMS supported Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary on a recent expedition to Davidson Seamount approximately 55 miles off the central California coast aboard E/V Nautilus, operated by Ocean Exploration Trust. AMS installed a pump and sampling media on the ROV Hercules to perform in situ solid-phase extraction of water and collect sediment cores for measurement of persistent organic pollutants at depths greater than 3,200 meters. These data will support evaluations of pollutants in the Sanctuary. Also during this expedition, a recent whale fall was observed and samples were collected to identify the whale and the organisms consuming the carcass and study the effects of the carcass on benthic organisms. This expedition also discovered another area of brooding by female Muusoctopus robustus in an area of seeping warm water on an extinct volcanic dome near Davidson Seamount. This discovery substantially expanded the area and numbers of octopus observed brooding their eggs after the initial discovery of brooding M. robustus in 2018.