ROV-ing my way to the Galapagos

A lot has happened since I last posted here, and apologies for not posting more. It’s been hectic, to say the least. Here are some updates with some photos:

All of the spring I took a DIY crash course in piloting and fixing our ROV, aka Roro. Actually, it was mostly learning how to fix and do open-heart surgery on Roro after the electronic housing flooded on our first deep water dive test.

 

Field test day in Indian Arm, BC, where Simon and I took Roro for his first deep dive down to 30m. Unfortunately, after just 2 minutes, the leak detector went off

Luckily only a few drops got in, so nothing major was compromised, but it took a while to find and replace parts that were leaky. As ROV technology is continuously improving, I decided to upgrade many parts to make it as leakproof as possible. Shout out to Hani, our department’s engineer tech, who helped me tons, as well as to the Bluerobotics team and online community of ROVers, who have been really helpful.

 

Leaky seals - no es bueno!

While it seemed impossible at the time, somehow, I managed to get everything working and to fit all my grear into three cases. This included ROV + tether, CTD (oceanography sensor), stereo-camera system, temperature loggers and lots of spare parts. On July 1st I was on my way schlepping my overweight suitcases from Vancouver to Galapagos. It was a wonderful feeling to be back in my pre-PhD home on Santa Cruz Island, and workplace at the Charles Darwin Research Station.

 

One of the local sea lionesses came to supervise that I was properly fitting the new stereo-camera to Roro for a test dive

Not long after my arrival I had to scramble to join Mission Blues' Galapagos Expedition on the M/V Argo, temporary home to amazing science and film/photography teams and the most famous phycologist (aka algae scientist) of all times - Dr. Sylvia Earle.

 

Dream team on a dream boat

During this expedition, I was on a mission to find kelp (Eisenia galapagensis) along the remote western coastlines of the archipelago, where this endemic was last seen over a decade ago. I needed a fresh sample to do a genetic comparison with the kelp I found back in 2018. Based on photos they look very different and we suspect that we may have found a second and new kelp species for the Galapagos, and potentially for science.

 

We piloted Roro from Manolo Yepez’s fishing panga. He taught me how to best manage the ROV tether that hangs off the side of the boat. This is no easy task in the usually strong currents (gracias amigo!). © Rolex/Franck Gazzola

As the kelp was expected to be found in water deeper than 30m, I used Roro to rapidly assess the presence or absence of kelp forests along various coastlines. While I did not find the kelp with Roro, I did get in some good practice doing video surveys of 30-60m deep habitat with zero leaks! Big thank you to Taylor Griffiths and the M/V Argo crew for their help and advice during these exploratory dives.

However, we did end up finding the kelp we were after. I first found a few individuals at ~28m when we did a strategic SCUBA diving search and was able to snatch some wicked samples (read more about this event @ DeepseaReporters blog)

 

This was a moment of massive joy! © Johan Candert

That same day I had the amazing chance to do another search in the DeepSee submarine, with Taylor (Sylvia's grandson) who is also a kelp fanatic. Both of us were gobsmacked when suddenly this thick kelp forest appeared on top of a ledge of a steep wall, we were ascending along between depths of 30-40 m. Being able to float above it and observe how extensive it was and covered by a cloud of fish and phytoplankton was incredible.

 

Taylor and I getting Sylvia's blessing and good vibes before going on a deep dive in search of the kelp!

 

After reading and researching everything about the enigmatic Galapagos kelp (Eisenia galapagensis), it was so amazing to finally see a dense kelp forest stand of it in the Cabo Douglas, of Fernandina Island

Now that I know where these kelp populations are located, I need to find a way to come back here so I can include this site as one of my field study locations, as it would be grand to be able to collect more data on this understudied, yet, ecologically important marine ecosystems

So my PhD thesis fieldwork got off to a “flying” start. Since I got back from this epic expedition, I have been busy preparing for my thesis field study which is taking place right now so I hope to update you very soon on how it all went.