Finally: we had our first deployment. 3,000 m of water underneath. The first benthic station at 52° 2.31’ S and 0° 1.20’ W. Benthos is the seafloor, and we are investigating the life there. Finally: One sampling gear after the other was set over the side. Wind and seas were clement. Temperature just above freezing. Ideal working conditions.
We, that is Annika Henche and Gritta Veit-Köhler of the Senckenberg Institute in Wilhlemshaven and five other colleagues working with samples from the multicorer. The multicorer — MUC for short — looks like a moon lander that is sent to the seafloor on a steel wire. On the MUC there are 12 plexiglass tubes which bore into the sediment on the seabed if all goes well. When the Muc is hauled back, the cylinders close automatically, and we get 12 wonderful tubes filled with deep-sea mud and deep-sea water. The MUC is the only gear that allows us to cut out cores with a truly undisturbed surface. That is why the MUC is very popular among sedimentologists and biologists like us who work with very small marine animals, and it is used worldwide with great success.
Our first deployment – pure suspense. We are woken up in the middle of the night. One hour to go – the countdown is on. Systems are checked, the MUC is tested. Annika is in charge, she is giving commands. The closing mechanism is prepared, the gear is fastened to the wire by the crew and heaved over the side into the water. While Annika is surveying the lowering, touchdown on the sea floor and hauling back of the MUC from the winch control room, Gritta is organizing the sample containers, sieves, and equipment for sample processing.
Two hours later: the MUC is back on deck. All tubes are filled. We are happy. Immediately the samples are sieved, sediment is cut into slices, some cores are fixed in formalin, and others are taken from our colleagues for oxygen measurements and sediment analyses. Our work is really just starting now. Part of the MUC team retreats to the labs and picks the animals out of the sediment.
And Annika prepares the MUC again. For the next deployment – in four hours.
Annika Henche and Gritta Veit-Köhler, Senckenberg