File:Wrecks of the Semi Deep 2.jpg

English: Wrecks of the Semi-Deep

Archaeologists and biologists from BOEM and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ventured 100 miles offshore to survey and 3D map a series of shipwrecks and rocky outcroppings to learn more about the wrecks and explore what life is growing on them.

Much of the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico is in the mesophotic (meaning “middle light”) zone, depths at which sunlight just barely reaches and is too dim to support most photosynthesis. This zone between 30-150 meters (~100-500 feet) is deeper and darker than the well-lit shallows that are easy for divers to access but not as deep as the pitch-black depths that is the domain of most Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs).

Because of that, the mesophotic is not well-known, and we are still learning what life lives in this zone of low light and what wrecks can be found at these depths.

This expedition sent an ROV down to map several wrecks, including the C.P. Baker, an early floating oil platform that sank in 1964, and the Hamlet, a motor tanker sunk by a U-boat in 1942.

The team used an ROV outfitted with 4K video cameras to document the ecosystem and to create 3D models of the ships similar to those found on BOEM's Virtual Archaeology Museum.

The science was supported by a collective effort from the University of Rhode Island, Marine Imaging Technology, Reliant Robotics, and Aqueos.

(Photos by Patrick Flanagan, Inner Space Center, University of Rhode Island)

Visit BOEM’s Virtual Archaeology Museum: boem.gov/environment/virtual-archaeology-museum