The island of Terceira in the background, a huge pod of common dolphins accompanying the ship, sunshine and calm seas; we cannot ask for a better start to our expedition “ISAAC” on journey M202 of research vessel Meteor. On 21 July, the RV Meteor left the port of Praia da Vitória, Terceira (Azores) to embark on a journey to explore the unknown of the deep sea. On board are a team of 29 consisting of scientists, engineers and technicians from six different countries and eleven institutes. The Meteor is operated by a team of 33 consisting of the captain, officers and supporting crew. The waters around the archipelago of the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean, are full of diverse wildlife. In this area, deep-diving toothed whales hunt close to each other and have learned to find different types of prey, like cephalopods and fishes, at various depths and distances from the shore. To help protect these whales, it’s important to understand what they eat, what the oceanographic conditions are of the whale and prey environment and how the whale’s prey are distributed in the water column. These are the main objectives of the collaborative project during M202. We will collect data from six deep-sea stations that range between 800 and 1800 m bottom depth near the island of Terceira. To observe organisms living in the deep, we will use towed camera systems, attract squid with low-light cameras and study the diversity of prey using environmental DNA (eDNA). We will also analyze how much prey there is with acoustic surveys, nets and other tools and conduct experiments on board. We are also interested in ocean currents and water movement in that area, to better understand prey distribution, and will therefore measure the speed and direction of the water flow. For all these different disciplines, techniques and approaches, we have experts on board.

During the next days and weeks, we want to take you with us on our scientific journey and give you an insight into the teams joining on board and the equipment and approaches we use to better understand the deep ocean of the North Atlantic.

Greetings from aboard the research vessel METEOR,

Véronique Merten (Chief Scientist M202 on behalf of all participants)