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Falkor (too) Logs Rare Deep-Sea Life and Litter in Argentina’s Submarine Canyons

The team is measuring water chemistry to explain the margin’s unusual productivity, including its role as a carbon sink.

Overview

  • Recent live ROV dives documented a banded yellowfish (Centriscops humerosus), a starfish in an egg‑incubating posture, and an unidentified translucent, leaf‑shaped organism at about 256 meters.
  • Researchers removed a blue tarpaulin bag found at roughly 332 meters to highlight the presence of human waste on the deep seafloor.
  • The current campaign focuses on temperature, salinity, acidity, oxygen and CO2 profiling alongside geomorphologic mapping of submarine canyons.
  • The multinational effort brings together Schmidt Ocean Institute with Argentina’s SHN, UBA, CONICET and a UNLP team now aboard for geophysics, geology and bio‑optics work.
  • A public live transmission from the vessel is scheduled for Thursday, October 23 at 14:00 to share methods, labs and preliminary observations.