10 October 2019 – 82° 53’N, 06° 15’W
Last year, the kids in the 3rd grade at Billingstad school (Norway) learnt about the Dumbo octopus. The beautiful drawings they made can be seen in the HACON “Outreach” web page.
Just before we left for the cruise, my daughters Ine (3rd grade) and Nia (4th grade) gave a presentation to their classmates and teachers in Billingstad school about the deep sea, hydrothermal vents and the HACON cruise. I could not be a prouder mum as I listened to them, and it was so nice to see the 7-9 year old school kids so engaged listening and asking interesting questions.
One of the things Ine and Nia talked about was how pressure increases as we go deeper in the ocean. To illustrate this, we have done an experiment: the kids wrote their names and drew on polystyrene cups, which we then took to the bottom of the ocean to the Aurora seamount. The high pressure shrinks the cups into mini-cups, and in this photo you can see the result!
We have a little surprise too…! During the seafloor camera surveys, we had seen the octagonal marks that the Dumbo octopuses leave on the soft mud when they eat. And then, a couple of days ago, we caught on camera a Dumbo octopus eating on the seafloor! Well, we only saw 3 of its tentacles…but it was nice to see!
HACON 