CRUISES

The Tonga Trench Expedition is part of the Inkfish Open Ocean Program and took place on the research vessel Dagon. The expedition was split into four legs that took place between the 1st July and 3rd October 2024 operating out of Nuku’alofa, Kingdom of Tonga, with marine research activities undertaken within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Kingdom of Tonga. 

The aim of the expedition was to bathymetrically map the Tonga Trench, document species from ~1000 m to 10,800 m depth, explore geological features of interest, document the characteristics of the seafloor and record properties pertaining to the overlying water column.

A total of 64,754 km2 of seafloor was mapped and a total 104 scientific lander deployments occurred across 37 sites collecting over 1250 hours of video footage on the seafloor (equating to over 50 days of continuous video combined). The suite of six scientific landers each recorded this high-definition video footage, acquired bottom water samples, oceanographic data and collected crustacean samples at each location. 

Fourteen submersible scientific transects were completed resulting in more than 56 hours of high-definition video data of the seafloor, traversing a combined lateral distance of around 14 km. 

The 2024 Tonga Trench Expedition was the most ambitious, largest and most comprehensive research expedition ever undertaken at these depths.

Led by Professor Alan Jamieson and Heather Stewart the team included Jessica Kolbusz, Denise Swanborn, Georgia Nester, Ebony Thorpe, Brett Gonzalez, Jenny Wainwright, Devin Harrison, Javier Montenegro, Alfredo Marcio, Joana Gafeira  and Dylan White-Kiely.