ROV Hardground Survey Gulf of Mexico Cruise (NRDA)
October 2011
R/V Holiday Chouest
We returned to the Gulf of Mexico on the R/V Holiday Chouest through the month of October 2011 to continue our investigation of the deepwater impact of the Gulf Oil Spill. We collected samples of deep-sea octocorals and scleractinians to continue our work on the phylogenetics of deep coral communities. We revisited our main site in MC294 (previously referred to as MC338) to continue the work we had begun on our previous cruises (Deepwater Horizon Incident Response Cruise). We also visited a number of new sites in the area to determine the extent of the damage from the spill, and revisited our old sites at VK906 and 826 to continue our time series work there. The best discovery of the cruise was the extensive and diverse coral community at the new AT357 site, which will be the subject of further study on our next project.