NEPTUNE@Sea Blog Blog from 06-Sep-09

Before our port call in Esquimalt we made a quick trip to ODP 889, to lay an extension cable from the node to our study location and install an instrument platform and a bottom pressure recorder.

This platform will service two very exciting experiments, the Controlled Source Electro-Magnetic (CSEM) experiment and the Sea Floor Compliance (SFC) experiment. (See related news story.)

All dive objectives were accomplished and we hope to test operation of the bottom pressure recorder this week.

OPD 889 Instrument Platform
The opposite end of the ODP 889 instrument platform from the connection ports. The saddle will be used to hold a media converter canister after installation of a sonar next to a seafloor vent half a kilometer away.	ODP 889 instrument platform with connection hose for the Controlled Source Electro-Magnetic (CSEM) experiment, which will be installed during the second leg of our journey.	ODP 889 instrument platform with piggy-back bottom pressure recorder prior to deployment, 5 September 2009.
ODP 889 instrument platform with connection hoses for a bottom pressure recorder (BPR, left) and a broadband seismometer (right). The BPR was installed on 6 September; the seismometer will be installed later in the cruise.

Deployment
NEPTUNE Canada contractor Jason Williams rigs cable end connectors on the reel used to connect the ODP 889 node to the instrument platform.	Our ODP 889 instrument platform sits in soft sediment at a depth of ~1250m surrounded by a sparse forest of sea pens.	ROPOS opens the door to the ODP 889 node in order to plug in a connection cable that links the node to the instrument platform. Photo taken 6 September 2009.

Local Sealife
Red brittle star climbing a slender sea pen, observed at 1254m.	This rattail fish seemed to glower at us with its large eyes. (Observed at 1254m.)	Tanner crab and sea pig observed at 1254m.