EARLY FINDS, EARLY PROMISE (NEWSROOM READY)

Scientists on the Ocean Census Bounty Trough Expedition off the coast of New Zealand say some of their early finds show great promise of being declared significant new species.

The 21-day mission is part of a 10-year programme founded by philanthropists at The Nippon Foundation and UK ocean explorers Nekton to discover and protect tens of thousands of species across the global ocean before overfishing and global warming wipe out entire populations and destroy habitats.

The team aboard the Research Vessel Tangaroa comprises Ocean Census scientists from around the world, working in partnership with New Zealand researchers from the national environmental science agency NIWA and fish and invertebrate specialists from The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa.

The explorers are deploying a deep water camera system known as DTIS - Deep Towed Imaging System - which is their "eyes" on what lives in the depths. The images captured are beamed into the ship's mission control room in real time, giving scientists a view of what no human eyes have ever seen in one of the most underexplored parts of the seas surrounding New Zealand 

SOUNDBITES 

CAROLINE CHIN, MARINE BIOLOGY TECHNICIAN,NIWA " It gets exciting when you can see the sea floor slowly appearing from the darkness and it starts to reveal itself with burrows and all the different types of animals"

SOUNDBITE ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR KAT BOLSTAD "SQUID SQUAD", AUCKLAND  UNIVERSITY OF  TECHNOLOGY "Every observation is valuable , every observation has a chance of being the first time something has been seen alive in its natural habitat so for us that's very exciting to think we might be looking at the screen and seeing something that no one has ever seen before". 

By using sonar mapping to determine the geographical features of the subsea world and deploying specialist equipment to understand the geology of the seabed;  experts on board can harness technology to create a fuller picture along the length and depth of the Bounty Trough. 

SOUNDBITE DR ALAN ORPIN, MARINE GEOLOGIST NIWA "We've got international experts who've got a range of diverse skills and a vessel that has a range of equipment at our disposal. The area's remote and a feature of it is the 1500 kilometre long Bounty Channel system, one of the longest channel systems on earth." 

The expedition is piloting a new design of fish trap to try to capture larger fauna in the hope a species new to science can be found. 

SOUNDBITE DR. THOM LINLEY, CURATOR OF FISHES ,MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA "We do want to use the trap as an addition to the other sampling methods we've got because it's good for larger, mobile, scavenging fauna and so things that get out of the way basically when we are trawling. When we trawl gear we tend to tow it quite slowly - so we catch the slow things but the quick things get out of the way; so a fish trap is a great way of getting things that are a bit more mobile that we wouldn't get with other sampling methods."

But it takes trial and error, as well as science ....

SOUNDBITE DR. THOM LINLEY, CURATOR OF FISHES ,MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA So we've just established communication with the releases that are on top of the fish trap - so we've got a Dunker transducer outside that's given a coded burst of sound down to those transducers and they've dropped that ballast weight, so now the whole fish trap  should be positively buoyant and it's coming back to us if these ranges are correct". 

But even the best innovation doesn't always perform optimally on first deployment.

SOUNDBITE DR. THOM LINLEY, CURATOR OF FISHES ,MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA " Bit of a disappointing day, not too bad though; it's a new vehicle, it's a new design, we haven't use the fish tank before so it always takes a little while to figure out how long it's going to take to get up and down in the water column.

But, in true marine science tradition, Dr Linley is sanguine - tomorrow is another day and there are more fish in the sea.

The operations aboard RV Tangaroa go on 24 hours a day in all weathers and every deployment of equipment gives fresh hope of finding new species. Overall ,one week into the three week expedition,  co-lead  Professor Alex Rogers, the veteran Ocean Census Science Director, believes their early finds show great promise.

SOUNDBITE PROFESSOR ALEX ROGERS OCEAN CENSUS SCIENCE DIRECTOR " Yesterday we sampled some seamounts and got some amazing samples of corals and other animals., Tomorrow we go into deeper water further offshore where there's been much less work, so we're expecting to find some really exciting and previously undiscovered species."  

The Ocean Census team will sample down to 5,000 metres along the Bounty Trough and Rogers believes it's extremely likely to provide evidence of dozens and probably hundreds of new species.  

Ocean Census/NIWA via AP Content Services - Global access all platforms in perpetuity for the purpose of telling the Ocean Census species discovery story. No archive resale. Mandatory on screen credit: Ocean Census/NIWA

SHOT LIST (ALL SHOT BOUNTY TROUGH, NEW ZEALAND, FEB 12-14,2024)

SOURCE OCEAN CENSUS/NIWA

DURATION 6.15  

1.RV Tangaroa at sea - shot of bridge 

2. RV Tangaroa at sea - aft deck

3.  DTIS (Deep Towed Imaging System) - deep water camera system is lifted up from deck on hoist

4. High shot, looking down on DTIS deployment

5. DTIS hits ocean

6 Underwater shot of DTIS 

7 DTIS underwater images of fish  

8 DTIS Control room - scientists view screens and underwater footage

9 DTIS Underwater footage person points at screen

10 SOUNDBITE CAROLINE CHIN, MARINE BIOLOGY TECHNICIAN,NIWA " It gets exciting when you can see the sea floor slowly appearing from the darkness and it starts to reveal itself with burrows and all the different types of animals"

11.DTIS Control room scientists look at underwater footage on screen

12 SOUNDBITE ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR KAT BOLSTAD "SQUID SQUAD", AUCKLAND  UNIVERSITY OF  TECHNOLOGY "Every observation is valuable , every observation has a chance of being the first time something has been seen alive in its natural habitat so for us that's very exciting to think we might be looking at the screen and seeing something that no one has ever seen before".

13. Shots of Tangaroa bridge, crew looking out to sea and on screen seabed measuring instruments 

14.SOUNDBITE DR ALAN ORPIN, PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST MARINE GEOLOGY NIWA "We've got international experts who've got a range of diverse skills and a vessel that has a range of equipment at our disposal. The area's remote and a feature of it is the 1500 kilometre long Bounty Channel system, one of the longest channel systems on earth." 

15. Dr Thom Linley setting up fish trap for deployment

16. Fish trap lifted up to edge of boat

17. Floats lifted up to edge of boat

18.SOUNDBITE DR. THOM LINLEY, CURATOR OF FISHES ,MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA: "We do want to use the trap as an addition to the other sampling methods we've got because it's good for larger, mobile, scavenging fauna and so things that get out of the way basically when we are trawling. When we trawl gear we tend to tow it quite slowly - so we catch the slow things but the quick things get out of the way; so  a fish trap is a great way of getting things that are a bit more mobile that we wouldn't get with other sampling methods."

19.Birds sitting on ocean

20.Dr. Linley on computer releasing fish trap from seabed

21.SOUNDBITE DR. THOM LINLEY, CURATOR OF FISHES ,MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA: So we've just established communication with the releases that are on top of the fish trap - so we've got a Dunker transducer outside that's given a coded burst of sound down to those transducers and they've dropped that ballast weight, so now the whole fish trap  should be positively buoyant and it's coming back to us if these ranges are correct". 

22. Device that delivers electronic signal from the surface to the fish trap on ocean floor

23.Floats in ocean waiting to be hooked up onto boat

24.Fish trap appears out of ocean

25.Empty fish trap / nets on boat deck

25. Dr Linley checks traps 

26. SOUNDBITE DR. THOM LINLEY, CURATOR OF FISHES ,MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA " Bit of a disappointing day, not too bad though; it's a new vehicle, it's a new design, we haven't use the fish tank before so it always takes a little while to figure out how long it's going to take to get up and down in the water column.

27.Nightshot of hoist / rear view of boat

28. Scientist gets sediment sample from corer device 

29. Daytime shots back of boat and ocean 

30. Various of a Beam Net coming back on board with a significant species haull  

31. Ocean Census Science Director Prof Alex Rogers and team members inspect finds

32. SOUNDBITE PROFESSOR ALEX ROGERS OCEAN CENSUS SCIENCE DIRECTOR " Yesterday we sampled some seamounts and got some amazing samples of corals and other animals., Tomorrow we go into deeper water further offshore where there's been much less work, so we're expecting to find some really exciting and previously undiscovered species."  

33.Scientists on back of boat

34.Royal Albatross glides down to ocean surface

35.Dusky Dolphins off bow of boat

36.Sun going down with Albatross flying