Exploring New Depths: How a Mesopelagic Profiler is Redefining Ocean Exploration

Collaborative efforts between ASU BIOS, the University of Rhode Island, and Stony Brook University send the successful Visual Acoustic Mesopelagic Profiler for Interdisciplinary REsearch (VAMPIRE) to work in the mesopelagic zones of the Atlantic Ocean.

The mesopelagic zone lies between 200 and 1000 meters below the ocean’s surface, where light intensity diminishes with increasing depth. Much of this zone remains poorly sampled in oceanographic research due to its restrictions surrounding light, pressure, and offshore accessibility. With a vast number of zooplankton and fish populations living in the mesopelagic ocean, datasets on these creatures are rare; however, with the help of advanced technologies, vital information for better understanding our ocean’s health and function is within reach and closer than we think. 

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Visual and Acoustic Mesopelagic Profiler for Interdisciplinary REsearch, known in short as VAMPIRE, is a non-disruptive autonomous profiling vehicle that can collect environmental, acoustic, and visual data and can be deployed down to 1000 meters. Left to its own devices for days at a time, VAMPIRE has the ability to analyze plankton and nekton communities at a very fine vertical scale, using cameras and acoustics, while environmental sensors simultaneously collect measurements of temperature, salinity, oxygen, chlorophyll, turbidity, beam attenuation, and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). 

The ASU BIOS scientists Leo Blanco-Bercial and Amy Maas joined a team of engineers from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography (URIGSO) and the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences(SoMAS) from Stony Brook University, to develop the VAMPIRE instrument, with the first successful offshore deployment of the vehicle taking place in late October of this year. While VAMPIRE works below the surface, scientists can tow nets and conduct experiments from onboard research vessels. It is expected that these complementary approaches will tell us new information about where animals congregate and why.

During Blanco-Bercial’s cruise off Rhode Island with collaborators from URIGSO and Stony Brook University, Arizona State University College of Global Futures graduate students, Sem Docekal and Rocío Belén Rodríguez gained valuable hands-on experience by participating in the cruise. On board URI’s research vessel, R/V Endeavor, the team spent ten days sampling the mesopelagic zone with rich datasets successfully under VAMPIRE’s belt.

VAMPIRE’s contribution to oceanographic research has only just begun. As sampling of the mesopelagic zone continues, scientists have the opportunity to discover more about marine life and how the oceans are changing in the face of a warming planet. This collaboration between the URIGSO, SoMAS, and ASU BIOS will eventually reach far and wide to enhance oceanographic research and deep-sea exploration across the Atlantic and beyond, with a Bermuda deployment planned in the spring and a Pacific deployment late next fall.