AsianScientist (Mar. 30, 2018) – A team of 30 researchers and support staff led by scientists from Singapore and Indonesia has embarked on a 14-day scientific expedition—the South Java Deep Sea Biodiversity Expedition—to study deep-sea marine life in the area off the southern coast of West Java. This is the first time that a concerted deep-sea biological exploration will be conducted in this largely unexplored part of the Indonesian seas.
This project is a reflection of the collaborative spirit embodied in RISING50—a celebration of 50 years of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Indonesia. The research team departed Muara Baru, Jakarta, Indonesia, on 23 March 2018 and will return on 5 April 2018. The Indonesian research vessel Baruna Jaya VIII will be used to sample the seabed at depths between 500 to 2,000 meters from the vicinity of the Sunda Strait Trough.
The expedition is led by Professor Peter Ng, Head of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum of the National University of Singapore, and Dr. Dwi Listyo Rahayu, Senior Research Scientist at the Research Center for Oceanography of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.
“This is the culmination of 15 years of discussions and explorations of possibilities,” said Ng. “This is the first time that Singapore and Indonesia are organizing a deep-sea expedition together and we are all very excited to find out what animals are present in an area that is practically unexplored by any biologist.”
Over the 14-day expedition, scientists plan to collect numerous samples of deep-sea marine creatures which are hard to obtain and rarely accessible. The expedition will focus on a variety of organisms—Crustacea (crabs and prawns), Mollusca (shells), Porifera (sponges), Cnidaria (jellyfish), Polychaeta (worms), Echinodermata (starfish and urchins) and fishes.
Each day, the research team plans to conduct sampling at three to four sites, covering a total of 29 sites. Each sampling exercise will take at least three to four hours to complete due to the depths involved and the time it takes to deploy the equipment. Important biological samples will be sorted out, photographed, preserved and labelled on board the research vessel. Some will even be kept alive for short periods in special chilled aquariums so that they can be observed, studied and filmed.
At the end of the expedition, the samples collected will be studied by scientists from both countries. This is anticipated to take up to two years and the results will be shared and discussed with the world at a special workshop that will be held in Indonesia in 2020. The outputs will then be collated and published in the museum’s science-citation journal, The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology.
“This deep-sea expedition will reveal the diversity of demersal organisms on the southwestern part of Java Island, the area where almost no exploration has ever conducted. It will certainly incite a strong maritime spirit among young Indonesian scientists participating in the expedition to go forth and seek the many interesting animals that live in the deep-waters of their country!” Rahayu added.
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Source: National University of Singapore.
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