Evidence of a Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem documented via tourist submarine off Cape Well-Met, Vega Island, Eastern Antarctic Peninsula (Subarea 48.1) - data

Study Extent

This dataset describes the abundance and distribution of VME-IT of the tourist vessel MY Scenic Eclipse at Cape Well-Met, Vega Island, Antarctica on 29 Nov 2019.

Sampling

Video evidence of a Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem (VME) was collected via submarine deployed by the tourist super-yacht MY Scenic Eclipse flagged with Malta. The relevant dives were conducted on the 29th November 2019 within Subarea 48.1.

Quality Control

- All records were validated. - Coordinates were converted into decimal latitude and decimal longitude and plotted on map to verify the actual geographical location corresponds to its locality. - All scientific names were checked for typo and matched to the species information backbone of Worlds Register of Marine Species (http://marinespecies.org/) and LSID were assigned to each taxa as scientificNameID. - Event date was converted into ISO 8601.

Method steps

1. Video evidence of a Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem (VME) was collected via submarine deployed by the tourist super-yacht MY Scenic Eclipse flagged with Malta. Recordings begin at the greatest depth and continue as the submarine travels up the wall. Footage was taken with a GoPro Hero 7 Black mounted in the pilot window of a U-Boat Worx Cruise Sub 7-300 (https://www.uboatworx.com/model/cruisesub). Four submarine dives were filmed.
2. Prior to footage clean-up it was decided that the longest resulting video would be the one that would be analysed. Footage of each of these dives were provided in multiple files.
3. Final Cut Pro X was first used to join the files into one video file per dive.
4. The videos were then cropped to remove the edge of the pilot’s window frame and to adjust the colour balance.
5. Clean-up then followed the same methodology as was used for analyzing the submarine footage for the successful nomination of four VMEs in WG-EMM-18/35 to remove unusable sequences. For the Cape Well-Met footage that meant the removal of any sequences where the submarine was too far from the wall, where the visibility was poor and when the submarine was paused.
6. Footage from Dive C was the longest resulting video after the completion of this clean-up procedure, thus it became the footage that was analysed.
7. The analysis methodology also followed that which was used in WG-EMM-18/35. (https://meetings.ccamlr.org/en/wg-emm-18/35) and in Lockhart & Hocevar (2021) (https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.577761).
8. To compare the relative percent abundance of VME indicator taxa to that of non-VME taxa and bare substrate at the Cape Well-Met site, frames were exported at regular intervals beginning at 0:00.
9. The resulting series of images were then imported into the program PAPARA(ZZ)I (Marcon & Purser, 2017) (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2017.02.002). Within this program images were further enhanced by adjusting brightness, contrast and gamma. As recommended by the authors, the usable area was then defined for each image allowing the exclusion of dark or blurred edges. See Figure 3 in Lockhart & Hocevar (2021) (https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.577761).
10. Once images were prepared in this way, an array of 100 random points was overlayed. Each point in each image was assigned one of three designations: VME indicator taxa, non-VME taxa or bare substrate. VME indicator taxa were further scored to OTUs (operational taxonomic units).

1. Animalia
   rank: kingdom
2. Chromista
   rank: kingdom
3. Porifera
   rank: phylum
4. Cnidaria
   rank: phylum
5. Brachiopoda
   rank: phylum
6. Bryozoa
   rank: phylum
7. Annelida
   rank: phylum
8. Mollusca
   rank: phylum
9. Arthropoda
   rank: phylum
10. Echinodermata
    rank: phylum
11. Hemichordata
    rank: phylum
12. Chordata
    rank: phylum
13. Foraminifera
    rank: phylum

Cape Well-Met, north coast Vega Island, Antarctica