Award: OCE-1634559

This project used the Wire Flyer towed profiling vehicle to investigate the midwater habitat around cold seep sites at the Costa Rica Margin. The vesicle was able to profile the water column in specific depth bands down to 1000 meters depth. The surveys crossed several of the study areas and extending 30+ kilometers into deeper water. The collected data show coherent midwater turbidity features with levels above the background ocean emanating from the seep locations and covering a large area. This clear image of the midwater around the seep sights is novel and helped to guide some additional data collections. Water samples were collected in the higher turbidity locations to determine if the water contained traces of seep related compounds. During this project a miniature acoustic echosounder was also integrated into the Wire Flyer vehicle and tested. This instrument is able to clearly show how the acoustic scattering layer is positioned relative to the hydrographic features of the water column, such as the oxygen minimum depth and temperature profile. This is a unique data set that could not be easily achieved with other oceanographic instrumentation. The overall outcomes of the project include the raw collected data, the further development of the Wire Flyer system, and the spatial reconstruction of the seep signatures in the midwater environment. This project supported a graduate student and contributed to their PhD dissertation. Last Modified: 02/14/2022 Submitted by: Christopher Roman