To advance regulatory and ocean-based policy goals, the government of the Seychelles Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change, and the Environment knew there was a need to fill large data gaps with defensible and quality information. To fill these needs, OceanX—a mission to support scientists to explore the ocean and to bring it back to the world through captivating media—was welcomed into the waters surrounding the Seychelles to carry out a three-week collaborative marine science expedition.
Regional priorities for the conservation of marine protected areas, data limitations, and data needs were all considered the year prior during a requested proposals stage of the expedition. Local authorities and scientists sought to answer questions like: what are the geophysical drivers of local upwellings, what are the differences in water quality inside versus outside of the coastal lagoons, and what are the current population statuses of elusive species like dugong and blue whales? Upon proposal considerations, it was decided the expedition would be carried out at full scale using a full ecosystem approach that would explore aerial and deep to shallow depths.
Harnessing Force Multiplication
Equipped with some of the latest ocean technology and assets—four deep-sea vehicles, four onboard labs, an uncrewed surface vehicle (USV), and more—the OceanX research vessel OceanXplorer enables researchers to accomplish a myriad of applied marine science surveys and investigations.
Mattie Rodrigue, Head of Science Operations for OceanX, joined us on a call from onboard the OceanXplorer during the Seychelles expedition to share more about the ongoing research being done, “We run 24/7 science operations, and we’re constantly acquiring data, deploying assets—marine robots and man systems, helicopters and scuba divers—and each of those platforms or persons are collecting data.”
A reef ecosystem at Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles. (Image credit: OceanX)
And in the case of the Seychelles mission, it’s all being completed in a short span of three weeks. Sailing alongside the OceanX crew, 16 principal investigators (PIs) from Seychelles’ government, academic, and NGO institutions applied their local expert expertise to the mission. In a true knowledge sharing fashion, OceanX experts operate all the advanced technology systems onboard the OceanXplorer while following scientific protocols developed by visiting PIs.
“Local researchers are bringing their expertise to guide navigation around the islands, where the limitations are, where to increase sampling resolution, as well as offering support for deploying systems and analyzing data. Every single day is a capacity and development day,” Rodrigue adds.
Early Discoveries
In the earlier weeks of the mission, the OceanX crew had already completed eight ROV dives, three manned submersible dives, 100 shallow and pelagic baited remote underwater vehicle dives, a helicopter megafauna survey (resulting in shark, turtle, and dugong observations), and eight CTD casts where 101 samples of environmental DNA (eDNA) were collected.
During their mapping portions of the mission, experts were able to classify and characterize the Aldabra Atoll and Assumption Island with multibeam bathymetry for the first time in history.
Rodrigue shared, “We’ll be mapping and characterizing the entirety of the eastern edge of the drop off zone with our partners. We will then conduct those same mapping and characterization methods so we can really achieve a complete picture of the island group that we can use to compare the differences and similarities between.”
Flights over Aldabra show the incredible scale of the atoll, lagoon, and coastline. (Image credit: OceanX)
“Thanks to our multi beam mapping system onboard, we were able to show—for the first time—what the Aldabra Atoll and Assumption Island look like and not just the classic view of the lagoon in the beautiful and fringing reefs sort of way, but down into the deep-sea levels in an extremely high-resolution fashion that has never been seen before,” Rodrigue adds.
Adopting the New
By employing new technologies and methods, scientists are able to create a firm baseline for decision-making. In the case of eDNA, Rodrigue comments, “For the first time ever, we have a tool that we can use to establish what the baseline biodiversity is in these environments. Now that we have that baseline, we can predict how impacts will change that baseline. Up until this point, we’ve had no idea what the baseline is to make firm decisions upon.”
As the observations and outcomes from the Seychelles mission are analyzed, authorities and stakeholders can begin to translate findings into policies and regulations backed by defensible data.
To keep up with OceanX’s ocean science missions, visit: oceanx.org
This feature appeared in Environment, Coastal & Offshore (ECO) Magazine’s 2024 Spring edition Marine Exploration, to read more access the magazine here.
