RRS Challenger Cruise 135, 15 Oct-30 Oct 1997. BENGAL: High resolution temporal and spatial study of the BENthic biology and Geochemistry of a north-eastern Atlantic abyssal Locality

Challenger Cruise 135 was the fourth of a series of cruises funded by the European Commission’s Marine Science and Technology III (MAST III) Programme as part of the BENGAL project (MAS3 CT 950018). Sampling commenced in September 1996 to assess changes in benthic systems over a period of one and a half years at a single, abyssal locality in the NE Atlantic (48° 50’N, 16° 30’W). It is hoped that changes within a year (seasonal) and between years (inter-annual) will be detected.Challenger Cruise 135 replaced a longer cruise planned for the vessel Atalante, which had to be cancelled as a result of a strike by the crew of that vessel. Challenger Cruise 135 was planned at extremely short notice with the aim of undertaking a reduced sampling programme and recovering vital moorings that had been in place on the seabed for periods of up to 1 year. Samples of the benthos and overlying water column were collected using a multiple corer, box corer, trawl and CTD. Two activities planned for the Atalante cruise, sampling of benthopelagic fauna using the University of Hamburg MOCNESS net system and photographing the seabed using the Southampton Oceanography Centre WASP system, could not be undertaken