MONDAY, JULY 13, 2015
NZ and Japanese scientists study Pacific submarine research
Six NIWA scientists led by marine biologist Dr Ashley Rowden are working with scientific colleagues from Japan in the
four-day workshop supported by the Royal Society of New Zealand, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
and NIWA.
The workshop at the Global Oceanographic Data Center (GODAC) on Okinawa, one of Japan’s southernmost group of islands,
is focusing on advancing the analysis and management of seabed imagery gathered during the voyages aboard RV Yokosuka.
The voyages brought together scientists from NIWA, GNS and JAMSTEC, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and
Technology, and created a bank of image data and video of unique seabed ecosystems in the first detailed biological
investigations of the three study areas.
As well as Dr Rowden, Drs Malcolm Clark, Jennifer Beaumont, David Bowden, Daniel Leduc, Invertebrate collection manager
Sadie Mills and Masters student James Wilson will attend the workshop that promotes the exchange of research ideas and
experience.
That includes discussion of data gathered by JAMSTEC’S three-man submarine Shinkai 6500, one of the world's most advanced deep sea research submersibles which is capable of diving 6.5km below the ocean
surface.
Investigations focused on documenting what seafloor animals live at the second deepest place in the ocean – the Horizon
Deep in the Tonga Trench at 10,800 metres – to determine what limits life at extreme environments.
Research at the Louisville Seamount Chain was designed to understand what changes in seafloor life are brought about
over time as seamounts become subducted at oceanic plate boundaries. Submersible dives at the northern Kermadec
seamounts collected images of life at hydrothermal vents, which can be contrasted with those already taken at vents
further south and closer to New Zealand.
Collaboration with Japanese scientists, and the use of a deep-diving submersible, has provided New Zealand scientists
the opportunity to undertake research that they would not otherwise have been able to achieve. The workshop is among the
first since the Prime Ministers of New Zealand and Japan agreed in 2013 to encourage stronger cooperation in scientific
research in the Pacific.
Video link
Submarine footage from the Louisville and Kermadec seamounts. CREDIT: JAMSTEC/NIWA/GNS
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