During the last century many biological communities and new ecosystems were discovered in the deep sea, in several oceans around the globe. Globally speaking, the North Atlantic has been one of the best studied deep sea areas due to the large number of renowned research institutions located in North America and Europe. On the other hand, its neighboring South Atlantic is still one of the least known areas in relation to the deep sea environment, particularly in terms of biodiversity.

 

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Deep sea environment in the North Atlantic, one of the most studied deep-sea regions in the world.

 

       With this justification, a partnership between Brazil and Japan was created in 2013 to collaborate in the research of the deep sea environments of the South Atlantic, including the waters of Southeast of Brazil. Several brazilian marine science institutes, including LAMP, joined JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology) in the development of this initiative, which was called Iatá-Piúna ("deep and dark waters" at the indigenous language Tupi-Guarani). For the project, the research vessel Yokosuka and the submersible Shinkai 6500, both from the japanese institute, were used to carry out the first biological and geological investigation of the South Atlantic history using manned submersibles.

 

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On the left, the Shinkai 6500 submersible of the Japanese research institute JAMSTEC, which was built in 1990 with capacity for two pilots and one researcher, and can reach up to 6,500m deep. On the right, Professor Paulo Sumida about to board the submersible for one of the deep sea dives.

 

       Between April 13 and May 24, 2013, the scientific cruises of the Iatá-Piúna project in Brazil were finally carried out, with the main objective of studying the deep sea ecosystems associated with certain geological features of the seabed. The studied areas were the Rio Grande Rise, the São Paulo Ridge and the São Paulo Plateau. A total of 16 dives were carried out with the submersible Shinkai. As result tens of hours of videos were recorded and various organisms and objects of interest were collected.

 

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Location of the areas studied by the project Iatá-Piúna, off southeastern and southern coasts of Brazil. The dive sites were Rio Grande Rise, São Paulo Ridge and São Paulo Plateau.