DEEP-ML – in situ documentation of the presence and distribution of marine litter and its impact on mesophotic and deep-water habitats (depths between 50 and 1000 metres), and production of a documentary

The first phase of the DEEP-ML project took place between September 2019 and March 2020. During the project, dives with the manned research submersible LULA1000 were carried out for in situ documentation of the presence and distribution of marine litter and its impact on mesophotic and deep habitats. Also, scientific samples were taken.

The project has been promoted by the Regional Secretariat for Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change of Madeira. It aims to identify habitats of ecological interest and the anthropogenic impacts on these habitats, in some sea areas of the Autonomous Region of Madeira.

Members of the Scientific Commission:

Andreia Braga-Henriques (Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE-Madeira), Natural History Museum of Funchal (Madeira), and Regional Directorate for Fisheries of the Regional Government of the Azores);

João Canning-Clode (Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE-Madeira));

João Delgado (Regional Directorate for the Sea of the Regional Government of Madeira);

Manuel Biscoito (Natural History Museum of Funchal (Madeira);

Pål Mortensen (Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Norway).

The work took place in four study areas, namely in the Bay of Funchal, in Ribeira Brava, in Machico/Caniçal and on the Ridge between Ponta de São Lourenço and the Desertas Isles.

Experimental panels were placed at various depths and recovered after two years. Those experiments will serve for a pilot study on larval recruitment of sessile organisms, such as corals.

In the meantime, the responsability for the project changed to the Regional Directorate for the Sea of the Regional Government of Madeira, and diving missions with the LULA1000 have been carried out within the second phase of the project.

Based on the data collected during diving missions within the DEEP-ML project, the following scientific paper on the discovery of hotspots of marine biodiversity on the Madeira-Desertas Ridge was published in Frontiers of Marine Science – Deep-Sea Environments and Ecology:

Braga-Henriques A, Buhl-Mortensen P, Tokat E, Martins A, Silva T, Jakobsen J, Canning-Clode J, Jakobsen K, Delgado J, Voirand T and Biscoito M (2022) Benthic community zonation from mesophotic to deep sea: Description of first deep-water kelp forest and coral gardens in the Madeira archipelago (central NE Atlantic). Front. Mar. Sci. 9:973364. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2022.973364

The documentary that was produced about the project can be seen here (in Portuguese language): https://vimeo.com/403787941

The project was funded by: