This post is contributed by expedition team member Wendy Benchley.

Elation! I have gone into the ocean depths in a submersible!

It was a terrific adrenaline rush to watch the clear blue water rise higher and higher on the plexiglass dome while sitting in a first class seat, with a 360 degree view. I'm hooked! No heavy tank, no jaw ache from clenching on a regulator, no clearing clogged ears! Only the lovely sensation of sinking slowly, so quietly down to a ledge on the seamount.

Avi Klapfer, the sub's designer and our pilot, maneuvered DEEPSEE with remarkable skill around the seamount until we were out of the strong current and resting peacefully on the bottom. We were surrounded by hundreds of beautiful pastel trigger fish. It was a special moment. On our way up we saw a school of tuna and some jacks. It was reassuring to finally see a few schools of larger fish in the Sea of Cortez.

There were no giant manta rays, but my trip into the deep was an incredible thrill and privilege. In fact, this whole trip has been an incredible thrill and privilege.

- Wendy Benchley

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Labels: DEEPSEE, Wendy Benchley

Our last dive was special. Avi piloted Brian and me through the blue, down and down past a huge school of mackerel that followed us until we passed through 300 feet, when the faint glimmer of surface sun disappeared. From there on we were in the black perpetual night of the deep ocean. We slowed and finally stopped 10 feet above the bottom, with 1,000 feet of sea on top of us. If we were to step outside of our sub, there would be 1,617 pounds per square inch pressing on our bodies, and we would implode to the size of a pint of jello. Needless to say, we decided to stay inside the sub!

If I described SCUBA diving as flying on another planet, then looking out at the bottom at 1,000 feet was being in another galaxy. The bottom was granular sand punctuated by rocks. We saw a few red scorpion fish, and then, as Avi moved the sub toward a great wall of volcanic rock, an unworldly deep sea octopus slithered by, changing its color to a deep red of alarm.


Photographer Brian Skerry eerily lit in the DEEPSEE submarine at 1,000 feet below the surface.
(Top) Alan Dynner looks out on the deep sea ocean life of the Sea of Cortez.

Then we moved slowly up the wall, passing strange jelly fish. Suddenly we saw two long neon flashes from bioluminescent creatures. It happened too fast to identify them. As we ascended, there were more and more white deep sea sponges and yellow corals. At 500 feet the wall ended, and we sailed through the water column past jellies, a school of bait fish, and finally to the surface with the welcoming sun and bright blue sky. The deep is mysterious and wonderful, and I am thrilled to have visited this strange realm.

- Alan Dynner

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Labels: Alan Dynner, DEEPSEE

This entry is contributed by expedition member Larry Madin.


Larry Madin and Alan Dynner on board the expedition vessel

When we awoke Sunday morning, the ARGO was arriving off Puerto Escondido, the "hidden port" south of the colonial town of Loreto, nestled in calm blue water in the shelter of Danzante and Carmen islands. Below us was the dive site with the recently discovered hot water vents, and over on the nearby shore was the site where my wife and I did our first field work, camping on the beach nearly 40 years before. A long way from those days of homemade boats and subsistence fishing to the luxurious and high tech ship we're operating from now!


Hydrothermal systems are one of the most intriguing ecosystems in the ocean. Discovered only 30 years ago, they have revealed a biological world almost totally alien from our own, fueled by the heat and chemistry of the earth instead of the light of the sun and air of the atmosphere. Further north in the Gulf, there are extensive vents thousands of meters down in the Guaymas Basin, but here we were sitting only 450 feet above the newly discovered vents.


Orange fish crowd around a shallow hydrothermal vent

It didn't take long to find the vents in the sub. After taking some time to get portraits of an unfamiliar sting ray with bull's eye spots on its wings, we moved up to a rock face where the shimmering distortion revealed openings where hot water was rising out of the earth. These shallower vents do not give rise to the tubeworms and giant clams of deep-sea hydrothermal communities, but the growth of white bacterial mats around the vents suggests that the fluid is contributing nutrients as well as warmth. Dozens of orange fish clustered in cracks nearby, unfazed by the looming submersible just inches away.

With battery voltage getting low, it was time to leave, but we had seen another example of the intimate connection between earth and ocean, a reminder of the volcanic history of the Sea of Cortez.

-Larry Madin

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Labels: DEEPSEE, hydrothermal vents, Larry Madin

This post is by expedition team member Alan Dynner.

Dawn quickly brightened into a cloudless sky over a flat Sea of Cortez after a 12-hour overnight trip north. We came to this spot because Avi Klapfer, our ship's owner, reported that there is a small seamount venting hot water and covered with sea life. For me, this day became one of sensory overload.

First was a SCUBA dive along the rough, rocky coast, starting in 25 feet and dropping off to 80 feet. The volcanic rocky bottom was teaming with fish, albeit small ones. Schools of snapper, pairs of butterfly fish, gorgeous angel fish, small groupers, a trigger fish here and there and a lot of boxy, pouting, bristling porcupine fish. I spent the last 15 minutes of a 50 minute dive hanging at 15 feet by a cavern full of all kinds of fish, back lit by a large hole in the rear of the cave.



A mother and calf short-finned pilot whale pair.
Photo by the NMFS Southwest fisheries science center.

Upon surfacing we were picked up by our dive launch and sped away towards an amazing sight--several pods of pilot whales rolling across the surface of the sea. We all quickly put on masks, fins and snorkels and slid quietly into the water, moving slowly towards the advancing whales. Most of the whales avoided us, but three (a big male and two females came right towards me. I turned and tried vainly to swim beside them; while they were too fast for me, I had the thrill of the two females, perhaps 15 feet long, coming within a few feet of me. We climbed back into the launch, only to speed ahead of the pod for still another visit. This time the whales dived beneath us, but I dived to 20 feet and again had a close encounter with these graceful, powerful animals. What a thrill!



But the thrills were only beginning. Greg Stone asked me to go on the first submarine dive on our expedition with Brian Skerry, Aquarium overseer and National Geographic star photographer, and our pilot, Schmulak. The sub is unique. It is a big bubble clam shell that can descend to 1,500 feet, maneuver on a dime, collect specimens, and take video. Most importantly for our mission, the sub is outfitted by National Geographic with a high resolution still camera that Brian operates to take photos for the coming article on seamounts.



I'll admit that I was unbelievably excited about my first dive in a sub. After donning a cotton jump suit and socks, Bryan and I gingerly entered the sub. As the sub descended, the water color changed from bright sunny blue to twilight blue to purple to black. Then ahead of us loomed a rock surface, like a small version of Everest covered with crevices and caves. In most of them swam foot long scarlet fish. Wow! A small, strange looking shark! An ugly giant frog fish! And then, a series of miniature volcanoes spewing boiling hot water that shimmered against the cold sea water. Many of the vents were surrounded by fields of white bacteria that feed off of the chemicals that are emitted. After Brian finished taking pictures, we surfaced with a feeling of awe and exhilaration.

-Alan Dynner

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Labels: Alan Dynner, ARGOS, biodiversity, DEEPSEE, hydrothermal vents, pilot whale

We have had a very good day. Our plans changed a little in that we learned that there was a newly discovered seamount 120 miles north of La Paz, near Puerta Escondido, with hot water (hydrothermal) vents!

Hot water vents are a remarkable deep sea ecological community that we could not resist surveying. The crew of ARGO are great and willing to accommodate the last minute change to the plan, but this kind of flexibility is key to successful research and exploration.


View of hydrothermic vents from the DEEPSEE submarine

So we boarded ARGO early, cruised all night, and then dove this spectacular seamount all day today. The ARGO is a wonderful boat and the DEEPSEE is a unique and fantastic submarine. All is going well and the weather improves every day making our research possible.


Photographer Brian Skerry in the DEEPSEE submarine


I have been impressed by the rugged coastlines here in this part of the Sea of Cortez and the ancient volcanic lava flows that are clearly seen on the hillsides, dating back many tens of millions of years. The hot water vents on the seafloor here are evidence of hot magma is not far away, close below the surface, so that it heats the sea water to make unusual marine ecosystems. So now head back to El Bajo and conduct surveys there.


-Gregory Stone

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Labels: ARGOS, DEEPSEE, El Bajo Seamount, hydrothermal vents

We flew in from Los Angeles to La Paz, Mexico yesterday. I had a rather extraordinary experience before boarding the aircraft in Los Angeles, California. My undergraduate alma mater, College of the Atlantic (COA), asked that I make the convocation address this year. I explained that could not do that as I would be en route for this expedition. COA was not deterred and asked that I give it by telephone from the airport prior to boarding the flight yesterday. That I did, and it was interesting speaking to an auditorium full of eager students in a the coastal town of Bar Harbor, Maine, while cupping the telephone mouthpiece and covering my ears so that I would not hear all the flight announcements echoing through the LA terminal.

Anyhow, my remarks over the telephone were geared toward emphasizing the importance of the oceans for life on Earth and I placed a special emphasis on seamounts, which are the subject of this expedition. Good luck and best wishes to COA's 2008 entering class!

After months of planning, the team is now converging here in La Paz over the next few days before boarding ARGOS and diving in the submersible DEEPSEE. Alan Dynner and I have come a few days early in order to SCUBA dive in the surrounding area and get the lay of the "land" before the whole team arrives.


Greg Stone prepares for the expedition with Larry Madin, Director of Research at WHOI.

On the flight down to La Paz, the plane was full of sport fisherman, all wearing t-shirts with big game fish on them and expensive sunglasses pushed up on top of their heads. The attraction of La Paz to these sport fisherman, who hope to catch yellow fin tuna and marlin among other fish, is further testament to the ocean life that exists here and it makes me all the more eager to get into the water and see these fish alive and swimming around.

As the wheels on the Horizon Air plane skidded onto the wet runway in La Paz, I could see wind blowing and wonder what the diving conditions will be like. Soon after arriving at our hotel I was informed that a storm would cancel our dives for the first day. So Alan and I are working at the hotel going over underwater cameras and diving gear in preparation for diving tomorrow.

-Gregory Stone

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Labels: ARGOS, College of the Atlantic, DEEPSEE, Greg Stone, La Paz