Yellowknife (Oct 17/03) - A shipload of scientists discovered some curious things about what lies beneath the surface of the Beaufort Sea.

The CCG Nahidik and a team of 13 scientists set sail to collect data about the biology, botany and terrain of the sea on Aug. 4 and returned Sept. 21.

The environmental data was collected primarily to provide assistance to issues related to exploration, drilling and offshore pipelines.

Chief scientist Steve Blasco of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography said the scientists came back with some fascinating facts about the Beaufort.

In 1971 underwater pingos were discovered and thought to be much the same as their landlubber cousins, but Blasco said the team discovered they are very different.

"They are four to five times bigger and they are mud volcanoes," Blasco said.

"The mud comes up from the centre and there is a moat created around the cone left by the cascading mud."

Right beside the pingos, biologists found impressions they believe were caused by bowhead whales scooping up the sediment to filter the vegetation out.

"In the depression, we think we found whale maw, where the whales have scooped the bottom," he said. "We think they're feeding off the bottom."

Another odd discovery came from plumes of gas bubbling up from holes in the ocean floor.

"They're like bomb craters," Blasco said. "They are about nine metres deep and can be anywhere from 20 to 30 metres across."

The crew collected samples of the gas and discovered it was methane, likely being released from a decomposing hydrate.

In search of areas for unique habitat, biologists studied the sea floor and area surrounding the gas vents for life.

"Outside the vent the area was biologically prolific, with lots of clams and worms but inside the vent there was very little life," Blasco said.

The craters are concentrated in certain areas on the sea floor but sparsely distributed through the area.

A new technique, multi-beam mapping, provides a topographical image that is far more detailed than previous two dimensional images.

Ice scrapers

A major concern with pipeline builders is with pressure ridges in shearing ice that form massive keels that can extend to the sea floor, causing breakage or damage to pipelines.

Blasco said the keels are three-to-four times bigger than the ridges.

"We actually found a metre-deep scour in 41 metres of water, so the ice keel was 42 meters," he said.

Should a pipeline be built, the pipe would need to be buried in a trench at least that deep, he said.

Mapping the scoured areas also showed the areas where the pressure ridges are most likely to occur, so builders can select the safest route for their pipe based on that data.

Another reason for the voyage was to research the need for more Marine Protected Areas.

There are two protected areas set aside for beluga whale habitat, but Blasco said there is concern that other areas might be required.

"We don't know enough about the Beaufort right now to really know the answers to that," he said.

School at sea

Two students from Aurora College's Natural Resources Technology Program accompanied the scientists for part of the voyage.

Robin Carpenter from Inuvik and Aaron Kimiksana from Holman participated in the program for eight days.

Carpenter had written a paper on the effects of underwater mapping techniques and effects on whale and seal populations and got to see first-hand how side scans are performed.

"It's different when you write about something and when you can actually see research taking place," Blasco said.

"We had a really good time with them; they learned from us and we learned from them," Blasco said.

The Nahidik will sail into the Beaufort the same time next year to continue the study and to prove theories established from this voyage.