CSIRO Survey TT200801 - ROV Jason cruise tn228: South and East of Tasmania

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The TT 01/2008 survey was a follow up survey to the SS 01/2008 to sample beds of high quality live, sub-fossil and fossil corals off SE Tasmania, and to document and sample the communities in depths up to 4000 m using the deep-diving Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason. 16 dives were completed in or close to areas in the South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserves; the ROV Jason spent almost 400 hours underwater, took over 36000 photographs and 300 hours of video of the deep-reef, and collected over 1000 biological specimens, most new to science.

The focus of the survey was collection of fossil corals (Desmophyllum sp.), description of habitats at depth between 700 and 4000 m depth and establishing two long-term monitoring sites in the Huon CMR (settlement plates). It explored and sampled on the near vertical slice in the earth’s crust, known as the Tasman Fracture Zone, which drops from approximately 2000 metres to over 4000 metres. Jason was used to collect video, high definition still images (mosaiced images) and selective samples of fossil corals and invertebrate fauna.

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Bibliographic Citations

1. Biodiversity and Conservation Ecology of the Deep Ocean Environments within the Huon and Tasman Fracture Commonwealth Marine Reserves. A study of the biodiversity, conservation ecology and potential threats to deep reef assemblages within the Huon and Tasman Fracture Commonwealth Marine Reserves Ronald Thresher, Alan Williams, Karen Gowlett-Holmes (2009) Final Report to the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts -