Deepsea trench research trip

Australian Museum Senior Fellow, Dr John Paxton will soon be taking part in an expedition to explore the depths of the Peru-Chile Trench.

John will take part in the three week research cruise on board the 97 m long German Research Vessel Sonne working in the Peru-Chile Trench during September 2010.

Six other members of the Deep Australia team will join the scientific party of 22 participants from Australia, Germany, USA and England.

While on board, the scientists will be examining the catches from midwater trawls down to depths of 2000 m. In addition, remotely operated cameras will be capturing footage in the midwaters and also down to 5000 m.

John is an authority on many families of deepsea fishes. He also has extensive fieldwork experience, having coordinated and participated in many deepsea research cruises.

Postscript: The trip was a great success. The Museum Victoria has added an excellent page to their website that provides further details of the trip and some of the interesting finds.