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4 February 2013 - INDEEP settlement frames recovered. The first frames have been recovered from a collaborative project to investigate larval recruitment in the deep sea using industry infrastructure. This project is part of INDEEP and has enlisted the help of Transocean to get access to deep water to deploy the settlement frames. More details are available here.
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24 January 2013 - Meeting in Tanzania Andrew Gates went to Dar-es-Salaam to present the results of SERPENT's field work off Tanzania. Statoil organised the seminar to present and discuss environmental projects related to their deep-water exploration. As part of this work, Andrew went offshore from Tanzania last year to investigate deep-sea biodiversity around drilling rigs operating in the area. A mission report will be on the SERPENT website soon. Images collected offshore Tanzania are archived in the SERPENT database.
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19 December 2012 - Daniel Jones' guest post on Deep-Sea News
Read Daniel Jones' guest post about SERPENT's recent work on deep-sea hydrocarbon drilling on the Deep-Sea News blog. | |
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17 December 2012 - SERPENT at the 13th Deep-Sea Biology Symposium in Wellington Andrew Gates, Daniel Jones and Charlie Main recently attended the 13th Deep-Sea Biology Symposium in Wellington, New Zealand. Andrew presented the results of recent SERPENT research on disturbance and recovery from hydrocarbon drilling in deep water and Charlie described the results from her experiments investigating the effects of oil on deep-sea sediments. Daniel's presntation predicted the effects of climate change on future benthic biomass. The presentation titles were as follows: Gates; The SERPENT Project: Exploring deep-sea life, anthropogenic disturbance and recovery at hydrocarbon exploration sites Main; Investigating the effects of deep-sea oil spills on sediment community oxygen consumption Jones; Future reductions in global ocean benthic biomass predicted as a result of climate change | |
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20 November 2012 - SERPENT studies on recovery from disturbance in deep water are available online The two studies of disturbance in deep water which SERPENT scientists have been working on have now been published. The study from the Laggan site in the Faroe-Shetland Channel is published in Marine Ecology Progress Series and the study from Morvin in the Norwegian Sea is in PLOS One. The studies were carried out at 600 m and 380 m depth. The work suggests some evidence for recovery after three years at both sites but confirms that full recovery in the deep sea may take many years. Both papers are open access so they are freely available to download: Gates, A. R. and Jones, D. O. B. (2012) Recovery of benthic megafauna from anthropogenic disturbance at a hydrocarbon drilling well (380 m depth in the Norwegian Sea). PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044114 Jones, D. O. B., Gates, A. R. and Lausen, B. (2012) Recovery of deep-water megafaunal assemblages from hydrocarbon drilling disturbance in the Faroe-Shetland Channel. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 461:71-82. DOI: 10.3354/meps09827
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15 October 2012 - Deep-sea biodiveristy in the Eastern Mediterranean - SERPENT's deepest site A study has been published recently describing the results of SERPENT work carried out onboard the Discoverer Americas in the Eastern Mediterranean. At 2720 m this is SERPENT's deepest study site so far. The paper in African Journal of Marine Science describes the benthic megafauna and fishes observed during a week of ROV observations at the Kiwi location north of Egypt. This part of the Mediterranean is extremely oligotrophic owing to high water temperature throughout the water column (14C at the seabed) and megafaunal abundance was very low. Occasional observations of crabs and fish were made but it was not until bait was deployed that any numbers of organisms were recorded. Even then it was predominantly one species of crab. The paper is available here: Gates, A. R., Jones, D. O. B., Cartes, J. E. (2012) In situ video observations of benthic megafauna and fishes from the deep eastern Mediterranean Sea off Egypt. African Journal of Marine Science 32: 215-222. DOI:10.2989/1814232X.2012.675121
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12 August 2012 - SERPENT papers on recovery SERPENT has got two major new papers accepted in peer-reviewed journals. These papers present the first analyses of recovery in deep-water megafauna from drilling disturbance. One paper is just out in Marine Ecology Progress Series and focusses on recovery at the deep water Laggan site in the Faroe-Shetland Channel. The other paper will be released soon in PLOS One and assesses recovery at the Morvin site in the Norwegian Sea. | |
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05 March 2012 - SERPENT article on Shell's website Following Andrew Gates' presentation at The Hague a new article has been published by Charlotte Brookes on Shell's website. It covers the collaboration with SERPENT at Dalsnuten and Gro in the Norwegian Sea and South Uist in the Faroe Shetland Channel. Thanks to all the hard work at these locations by Kerstin Kröger, Daniel Jones and Nicolai Roterman. For more information about the sites please look at the image in the SERPENT archive. | |
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25 February 2012 - New SERPENT publications Two of SERPENT's recent science projects have just been published. Daniel Jones' investigation of the effects of disturbance on the deep-sea megafauna at the Orca oil well offshore Venezuela was published in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK. Junya Hirai's study of krill density over space and time at numerous SERPENT sites in the Faroe-Shetland Channel is published in Marine Biology Research. | |
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10 November 2011 - Mission Report from West of Shetland A new mission report has been uploaded describing Andrew Gates' recent visit to the Wilphoenix to study changes to the megafaunal assemblage a year after the well was initially drilled. As well as the work on disturbance there were some fascinating observations of conger eels living within a protective structure on the seabed. Visit the mission pages to find out more. See Whirlwind Recovery in the United Kingdom section. | |
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3 October 2011 - SERPENT at the WCMB Andrew Gates and Kerstin Kröger attended the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity in Aberdeen last week. Kerstin and Andrew presented SERPENT on conference sponsor, Shell's stand in the exhibition area. Andrew and Kerstin gave short talks from the stand about SERPENT's current work and discussed future collaboration with many scientists at the event. SERPENT and other organisations took part in lively panel discussions organised by Shell about science collaborating with industry to study the oceans. During the conference SERPENT and the INDEEP WG3 met with Transocean for an update and to continue discussions on the population connectivity project. | |
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1 August 2011 - SERPENT working with INDEEP Members of the WG3 INDEEP group and SERPENT met in the New Forest, UK on 13th & 14th July to discuss plans for an exciting new venture to study connectivity on a global scale. Meeting participants: Anna Metaxas, Dan Jones, Andrew Gates, Annie Mercier, Ana Hilario, Paul Tyler, Sven Thatje, Maria Baker, Eva Ramirez-Llodra, Pedro Riberio. Input was also given from members of WG3 who were unable to attend the meeting For further information, about INDEEP visit www.indeep-project.org. | |
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6 July 2011 - SERPENT on Australian TV Australian ABC TV's national flagship current affairs program "7:30" featured Prof. David Booth and Dr Peter Macreadie commenting on the controversial question of whether Australia’s offshore petroleum structures should be converted into artificial reefs (‘rigs-to-reefs’) and highlighting the importance of the deep sea SERPENT program. Broadcast on Wed 6th July 2011. Watch on ABC! | |
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24 January 2011 - SERPENT book out now! A new book about the deep sea life of Scotland and Norway has just been published. This book features the best SERPENT images from this unique and diverse deep water area. It is one of the first true species guides for the deep sea and features a detailed introduction to the area, high-quality colour photographs and in depth taxonomic and ecological information on the animals of the area. This book represents nearly ten years of regular observations by the authors and is a treasure-trove of information on the deep marine life of the region. Available now! | |
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02 December 2010 - SERPENT activity at three sites off the coast of Shetland In recent months the SERPENT team have been to three sites off the coast of Shetland: Lancaster, Lagavulin and Whirlwind where SERPENT have carried out investiagtions and collected both physical and biological data. Industrial ROV's were used to deploy time laspe cameras, take sediment samples and deploy baited traps to asses the disturbance caused by drilling and also to investigate the recovery of sites once drilling has stopped. Both video and stills images were collected at all three sites, some speciemens were also collected and frozen to be further analaysed back in the lab. There have been many species encountered at the sites, both Lancaster and Whirlwind showed a high similarity in species present at both sites. Images and details of the species found at the sites are avalibale in the Media Archive Full details of all the SERPENT missions can be found here | |
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25 November 2010 - SERPENT image used in BBC 2's "Autumnwatch Unsprung" A SERPENT image of a monkfish seen this year at Whirlwind, West of Shetland was featured in the final episode BBC 2's "Autumnwatch Unsprung" series. The episode can be seen online on BBC iplayer The image is 9 minutes 5 seconds into the programme. More images from Whirlwind are available in our database | |
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20 October 2010 - SERPENT presentation on environmental monitoring offshore Norway Dr. Andrew Gates presented data from SERPENT's work in Norway at the Forum for Environmental Monitoring held in Oslo at the Climate and Pollution Agency The presentation is available online |
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28 July 2010 - SERPENT welcomes new team member The SERPENT project would like to welcome Dr Kerstin Kröger Dr Kerstin Kröger as the newest member of the team, Kersitn who is orginally hails from germany, has come to us via Norway. Where she worked on the MAREANO project and prior to that spent ten years in New Zealand working for various scentific organisations.
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28 April 2010 - SERPENT sighting of giant jellyfish makes BBC news SERPENT footage of Stygiomedusa gigantea filmed in the Gulf of Mexico has been reported by the BBC The records are available on our online database |
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22 April 2010 - Accident on the Deepwater Horizon During the night of April 20, 2010, the Transocean rig Deepwater Horizon underwent a catastrophic accident that resulted in an explosion and fire that left 11 crew members missing and others severely injured. Deepwater Horizon, working under contract to BP Exploration and Production, is one of the Gulf SERPENT partner sites. Since 2006, the Oceaneering E-MAG ROV on the Horizon has collected countless hours of stunning images of marine life from the depths of the Gulf. We are gratified to learn that the ROV Team headed by Darren Costello are safe and uninjured. Our thoughts are with the families of the missing and we look forward to news of their safe rescue.
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2 March 2010 - Lecture at Ballard School Dr. Andrew Gates visited Ballard School in Hampshire to speak about SERPENT in their Spring Term Lecutre Series. The evening was popular with students and parents alike from Ballard and other local schools. Andrew introduced the group to the deep sea around the UK and further afield and took along some unusual specimens and sampling equipment for the students to see. As part of the evening there was a question and answer session about careers in which Andrew offered advice to those wishing to follow a scientific career path. |
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26 Feb 2010 - Last day for SERPENT Outreach Co-ordinator Today is the last day of work for Rob Curry who has been the SERPENT Outreach Co-ordinator for the last two years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the collaborators and partners of the project which it has been by great pleasure and privelege to work with. I will continue to work at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOC) providing outreach resources. Please note that our collaboration with the Natural History Summer blockbuster "The Deep" will continue and keep your eyes on the press and online to have a chance to visit this exciting show which will feature an ROV from Oceaneering as well as information about the SERPENT project and NOC. Daniel Jones will be the outreach contact for now, and you can contact him directly by using our feedback form.
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A tripod fish Bathypterois sp. swims lazily away from the ROV, then decides to turn and have a look.
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12 Feb 2010 - New footage/images from Brazil Exciting footage and images of animals found in the deep waters between 906 m and 1443 m offshore Brazil have come into the SERPENT project offices recently. ROV pilot Iain Cruikshank on a Technip vessel came across the creatures on routine maintenance missions and sent us these great images and videos. We were able to help him with identification. Thanks Iain! If you are a ROV pilot or have authorised access to video or images of creatures in the deep ocean, we really want to hear from you. |
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08 Feb 2010 - Gulf SERPENT giant oarfish and manefish article on BBC site. BBC News profiled two discoveries on their website today: the oarfish from Thunder Horse and the manefish from Ocean Confidence. Discovery Channel is also going to feature the oarfish. The BBC told me that this story was the third most viewed and linked story on their entire website. Thanks to everyone aboard the two sites and in particular, the Innovator 19 team on Thunder Horse and the Oceaneering Team aboard Ocean Confidence. Read the article at Related links:
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04 Feb 2010 - SERPENT is now available on Twitter. Keep up to date with all the latest SERPENT deep sea research news by following the SERPENT project on Twitter. |
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11 Jan 2010 - New Site Map available on this website | |
A Bloody Henry seastar at 600m in the West of Shetland. UK |
7 Jan 2010 - SERPENT adds important new insights on the contribution of echinoderms to ocean carbon storage Population density data and samples collected by the SERPENT project have been incorporated into a large, global study on the contribution of echinoderms (such as seastars, sea urchins and brittlestars) to carbon capture in marine sediments. The report, published in the journal ESA Ecological Monographs, shows that, worldwide, echinoderms capture around 0.1 gigatonnes of carbon per year. This is less than the global capture resulting from pelagic organisms, a figure that ranges from 0.4 to 1.8 gigatonnes depending on the sources considered, but still represents a sizeable carbon pump. By comparison, human activities lead to around 5.5 gigatonnes of carbon being pumped into the air every year. |
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Please see the News 2009 or News Archive page for older news items. |
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