Exploring the deep
I have been involved in exploring the deep ocean over the past 25 years, including using Human-Occupied Vehicles (HOVs) and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), occasionally leading expeditions aboard research ships, and discovering new species of deep-sea animals.
Those expeditions have investigated places such as undersea hot springs in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian & Southern Oceans, a brine lake at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, and underwater mountains around Antarctica, sometimes working with film-makers for the BBC, National Geographic, and Discovery Channel.
No human eye had glimpsed this part of the planet before us, this pitch-black country lighted only by the pale gleam of an occasional spiralling shrimp.
Fieldwork & Expeditions
June 2021
Surveying the marine life of the southwest UK using a microROV, in the 9th year of an annual collaborative project with the Natural History Museum.
June 2019
Investigating the ecology and evolution of marine life at shallow hydrothermal vents in Eyjafjörður, northern Iceland.
An early glimpse of a rough-and-ready first pass at mosaicing the top of the main Strytan vent chimney, to get a feel for what's where, from yesterday's @rov_REX #LifeFromVents video survey: pic.twitter.com/rlA5XIPZfv
— Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) June 17, 2019
June 2017
Surveying the marine life of the southwest UK using a microROV, in the 6th year of an annual collaborative project with the Natural History Museum.
December 2016
Scientific Guide, BBC Natural History Unit / OceanX expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula with human-occupied vehicles (HOVs), as part of filming for Blue Planet II.
This expedition included the first dives by human-occupied vehicles to 1 km (0.62 miles) deep in the Antarctic.
And the award goes to... OceanX! This year's @TheWebbyAwards winner for Education & Discovery is our journey to unexplored ocean depths and the incredible life that thrives in rich waters more than 3,000 feet below the ice of Antarctica. #OurBluePlanet with @BBCEarth. #Webbys pic.twitter.com/0J3l72nPXu
— OceanX (@oceanx) April 23, 2019
There are days when I love my job, & today was one of them, thanks to the hard work of the whole team aboard the research ship #Alucia pic.twitter.com/mTb5Mk9Pjr
— Jon Copley (@expeditionlog) December 14, 2016
June 2015
Surveying the marine life of the southwest UK using a microROV, in the 4th year of an annual collaborative project with the Natural History Museum.
August 2014
Exploring some of the world's shallowest hydrothermal vents, on the north coast of Iceland, using a microROV in an expedition led by Adrian Glover of the Natural History Museum.
June 2014
Surveying the marine life of the southwest UK using a microROV, in the 3rd year of an annual collaborative project with the Natural History Museum.
June-July 2013
RV Yokosuka Voyage YK13-05, led by by Prof Ken Takai of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), investigating deep-sea vents in the Cayman Trough with the Shinkai6500 manned submersible.
This expedition included the first dive by a human-occupied vehicle to the world's deepest known hydrothermal vents (depth ~5 km / 3.1 miles).
June 2013
Surveying the marine life of the southwest UK using a microROV, in the 2nd year of an annual collaborative project with the Natural History Museum.
February 2013
Chief Scientist, RRS James Cook Voyage 82, leading the exploration of deep-sea vents in the Cayman Trough with the UK's Isis ROV.
- Expedition log: RRS James Cook Voyage 82
- New species: Pachycara caribbaeum eel-pout fish & Provanna beebei deep-sea snail
June 2012
Surveying the marine life of the southwest UK using a microROV, in the 1st year of an annual collaborative project with the Natural History Museum.
November-December 2011
Chief Scientist, RRS James Cook Voyage 67, leading the first ROV exploration of deep-sea vents on the Southwest Indian Ridge (depth ~2.8 km).
- Expedition log: RRS James Cook Voyage 67
- Research highlight: Ecology and biogeography of megafauna and macrofauna at the first known deep-sea hydrothermal vents on the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge
- New species: Gigantopelta aegis, Dracogyra subfuscus & Lirapex politus deep-sea snails
July-August 2011
RV Celtic Explorer Voyage CE11009, exploring the first deep-sea vents detected on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge north of the Azores (depth ~3 km).
This expedition included filming for National Geographic's Alien Deep.
- Research highlight: Moytirra: discovery of the first known deep-sea hydrothermal vent field on the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge north of the Azores
January-February 2011
RRS James Cook Voyage 55, surveying deep-sea vents in the Antarctic.
- Expedition log: RRS James Cook Voyage 55
- Research highlight: Geochemical and visual indicators of hydrothermal fluid flow through a sediment-hosted volcanic ridge in the central Bransfield Basin
March-April 2010
RRS James Cook Voyage 44, exploring the world's deepest undersea volcanic rift, in the Cayman Trough of the Caribbean Sea.
- Expedition log: RRS James Cook Voyage 44
- Research highlight: Hydrothermal vents & chemosynthetic biota on the world's deepest seafloor spreading centre
- New species: Rimicaris hybisae vent shrimp; Iheyaspira bathycodon deep-sea snail; Lebbeus virentova "green goolie" shrimp.
January-February 2010
RRS James Cook Voyage 42, investigating deep-sea vents in the Southern Ocean, with the Isis ROV.
This expedition included filming for National Geographic's Alien Deep.
- Research highlight: The discovery of new deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities in the Southern Ocean and implications for biogeography
- New species: Paulasterias tyleri seven-armed seastar; Gigantopelta chessoia & Provanna cooki deep-sea snails
- Research highlight: The discovery of a natural whale fall in the Antarctic deep sea
- New species: Osedax rogersi & Osedax crouchi bone-eating "zombie" worms
- Research highlight: Fauna of the Kemp Caldera and its upper bathyal hydrothermal vents (South Sandwich Arc, Antarctica)
January-February 2009
RRS James Clark Ross Voyage 224, exploring undersea volcanoes in the Southern Ocean.
May 2005
Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami Offshore Survey in the Indian Ocean, a science-media partnership with filming for Darlow-Smithson's Unstoppable Wave (BBC / ProSieben) and America's Tsunami: Are We Next? (Discovery Channel US).
November 2004
Working at deep-sea vents on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (depth ~3.6 km) with the Jason-2 ROV.
- Research highlight: Assessment of decadal-scale ecological change at a deep Mid-Atlantic hydrothermal vent and reproductive time-series in the shrimp Rimicaris exoculata
November 2003
Diving to Gulf of Mexico cold seeps in the Johnson Sealink submersible.
- Research highlight: Seasonality and zonation in the reproductive biology and population structure of the shrimp Alvinocaris stactophila at a Louisiana Slope cold seep
February-April 2003
Autosub Under Ice expedition to the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica, aboard the RRS
James Clark Ross.
February 2003
Diving to Gulf of Mexico cold seeps in the Johnson Sealink submersible.
March 2002
Investigating cold seeps in the Gulf of Mexico.
April 1998
RRS Charles Darwin Voyage 120 to the NE Atlantic.
September-October 1995
Diving to deep-sea vents in the NE Pacific in the US Navy's DSV Sea Cliff.
- Research highlight: Spatial variation in the reproductive biology of Paralvinella palmiformis (Polychaeta: Alvinellidae) from a vent field on the Juan de Fuca Ridge
July-September 1994
British-Russian Atlantic Vents Expedition 1994 (BRAVEX/94) with the
Russian Academy of Sciences.
- Research highlight: Spatial and interannual variation in the faunal distribution at Broken Spur vent field
