Day 12
11 february 2022
Plastic in the water
Natacha is interested in the products released into the ocean during the degradation of plastic. Among the studied materials, there is tire, reduced in small pieces.
To get into conditions, the samples made of crushed plastic must be placed in sea water. But this is not enough to reproduce the underwater environment. The tubes that contain her samples are subjected to a pressure of 200 bars, the same pressure as at a depth of 2000m. For this manipulation, Natacha is helped by Marc and Christian's team who is authorized to carry out hyperbaric operations.
Why the tire?
The rubber of the tire contains 6PPD (N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N′-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine if you want to sharpen your reading...) which is a dangerous additive for fish populations. Natasha and her team will observe the amounts of 6PPD released and study other substances released from the tire tips into the marine environment.
BathyBot shines!
Scientists are also artists. Chloe and Marc isolated bioluminescent bacteria and grew them with a BathyBot logo stencil. The bioluminescence produced by these bacteria is impressive.
Nice, isn't it?
It's in the MIO laboratory that the bacteria will be identified!
Crédit photo : Marthe Vienne
Marthe's plankton net
Plankton nets are giving more and more interesting results...
This is a pyrosome identified by Marthe. The pyrosome doesn't represent only one animal, it's in reality a colony of individuals! We can observe them on this picture, each compartment is an individual. This one is a very small pyrosome, some of them can reach several meters long!
And this small piece of life is bioluminescent!
Crédit photo : Marthe Vienne
And it shines!
In the dark it reveals its bioluminescence! It's very likely that the light emitted by the pyrosome is due to bacteria that share their life with it.
They will be studied in the laboratory in Marseille...
Crédit photo : Marthe Vienne
Still working underwater!
The Nautile has been diving on the EMSO-LO site every morning since the weather has been on our side. The teams take turns and progress. This is the penultimate dive of the Nautile.
The scientist going with the pilots is our mission leader, Dominique. He has a long career in research and countless days of work on the sea behind him, and today is a great day as he makes his first dive in the Nautile!
Passengers board the Nautile at 9:00 am and do not leave until 5:30 pm. Dives in the Nautile generally do not exceed 6 hours, but the launching and recovery operations are time consuming because of their complexity.
The teams saw a tripod fish! A fish that we will show you on @BathyBot 's twitter when we get the images!