( and topography of the whole canyon bas...)Deep-water discovery

and topography of the whole canyon based on small swaths revealed by the flashlight. The Rosenstiel School AUV work has instead made it possible to choose dive sites likely to be vibrant reef areas, all with an understanding of the full system being explored.

The expedition will have two main goals. First the team will use the submersible to explore those seafloor areas that appear most promising based on their sonar map contours. As this "ground truthing" work progresses, the team will be able to better predict correlations between map data and biodiversity on the bottom. Ultimately, this will allow them to more accurately assess the ecological importance of the entire area, not just those small swaths observed from the submersible.

During each submersible dive, Harbor Branch experts will collect samples of organisms such as sponges and corals that they will test to determine if they, or microorganisms living within them, produce chemicals with pharmaceutical potential. A key goal is to find and collect organisms that have never been seen. The team will collect other organisms as well because even well-known species can produce different and potentially important chemicals depending on the depth, temperature, and location at which they are found.

Harbor Branch's quest for drugs form the sea began in the early 1980s and has led to the collection of tens of thousands of marine organism samples and the identification of a number of promising potential drugs now in various stages of development for treating cancer, Alzheimer's disease, malaria, AIDS, and other ailments.

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Source:University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science


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