Cruise Report: EX-12-02 Legs 2 & 3, Gulf of Mexico 2012 Expedition (ROV & Mapping)

During March and April of 2012, NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) and a team of more than 50 scientists, managers, and students from academia, industry, and federal agencies explored the Northern Gulf of Mexico using the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. The two expeditions, EX-12-02 Legs 2 & 3, combined remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and seafloor mapping operations in exploring the biology, geology, chemistry, and archaeology of the seafloor in this region. EX-12-02 Leg 2 conducted 16 ROV dives and collected 14,600 square kilometers of multibeam bathymetry between Tampa, FL, and Pascagoula, MS. The expedition explored areas on the West Florida Escarpment and areas in the Mississippi Canyon. More than 130 coral colonies and 400 associated animals were imaged by the ROV. EX-12-02 Leg 3 conducted 13 ROV dives and collected 14,136 square kilometers of multibeam bathymetry between Pascagoula, MS, and Galveston, TX. The expedition explored undersea canyons, deep-sea coral communities, salt domes, methane seeps and associated communities, and the water column along the continental shelf. Both acoustic and visual methods using the ROV were tested to detect and ground truth gas seeps and measure flux. Five potential or poorly known shipwreck sites identified during previous industry surveys were also investigated; these were the first archaeological sites investigated using an ROV from NOAA ShipOkeanos Explorer. 2021 Ocean Exploration Program OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) Submitted https://doi.org/10.25923/j5pe-3r34 Public Domain 1878