CE17008 Exploiting and Conserving Deep-Sea Genetic Resources: SFI cruise I

This 13 day survey, led by National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) took place on board the Marine Institute's R.V. Celtic Expolerer in May/June 2017 in the North East Atlantic. The survey was conducted to collect large Porifera and Cnidaria, groups with known biodiscovery potential, and some other taxa which have already shown bioactive potential in previous surveys carried out in NUIG. This survey was the first cruise of the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)/Marine Institute co-funded project “Exploiting and Conserving Deep-sea Genetic Resources” which commenced in September 2016. The cruise thus makes a direct contribution to Ireland’s desire to increase capacity in Marine Biodiscovery and tap into the economic potential of the marine environment. The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Holland 1 was deployed and ROV video and still image data was obtained, as well as specimens collected. Conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sampling was conducted, and multibeam surveys carried out. The survey objectives were to collect fauna – specifically sponges and corals - and high definition video data using the Irish deep-water ROV Holland I deployed from Celtic Explorer from a diversity of deep-water habitats. The wider objectives of the Science Foundation Ireland Investigators programme project Exploiting and conserving deep-sea genetic resources focuses on biodiscovery research in Irish deep-sea Cnidaria and Porifera. The aims are to: find new bioactive natural products from deep-sea corals and sponges in Irish offshore waters develop informed bioprospecting approaches to maximise the chance of finding these compounds in hard to sample environments such as the deep sea inform conservation planning in relation to biodiscovery hotspots