Oceanographic campaign on board the R/V Mário Ruivo with the leadership and participation of IDL researchers -EU project TRIDENT

TRIDENT project (https://deepseatrident.eu/)  aims to conceptualise and operationalise an environmental impact assessment monitoring system based on autonomous vehicles, which will operate in the water column from the sea surface to the seabed. This system aims to ensure the monitoring and observation of possible future activities in the seabed and any other anthropogenic, commercial or scientific activity in the deep sea.

The oceanographic campaign TRIDENT BASELINE SURVEY (TRIDENT – environmental baseline mission) aimed to collect data to determine parameters that will serve to characterise the environmental baseline in the Tropic Seamount test site, located about 500 km south of the Canary Archipelago.

The TRIDENT BASELINE SURVEY mission was carried out aboard the research vessel Mário Ruivo of the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) between 13th June and 2nd July. Chief science officer Dr Pedro Terrinha (IPMA – IDL) led this mission of 24 researchers from five European institutions: INESC TEC, IPMA, University College Cork (Ireland), the Centre for Technological Research of the University of Algarve (CINTAL) and the Geological Survey of Spain (IGME-CSIC).

In this mission, passive acoustic data (environmental noise), light transmission through the water, seabed morphology and nature, seabed biology, ocean currents' speed, vertical profiles of physicochemical parameters of the water column, long-term monitoring of near seabed water properties and the biogeochemistry of the bottom sediments were acquired. For this purpose, equipment operated on board the ship, fixed moorings and drifters with hydrophones to listen to environmental noise, automated monitoring stations and autonomous robotic underwater mapping equipment were used.

TRIDENT HE project is coordinated by INESC TEC and has EU funding (Project 101091959) of around 16 million euros. It brings together 25 public and private institutions, 6 of them Portuguese.