{"id":34867,"date":"2025-02-11T11:50:40","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T09:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marsci.haifa.ac.il\/?p=34867"},"modified":"2025-11-10T09:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T07:21:09","slug":"groundbreaking-achievement-in-deep-sea-research-off-the-israeli-mediterranean-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marsci.haifa.ac.il\/en\/groundbreaking-achievement-in-deep-sea-research-off-the-israeli-mediterranean-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"Groundbreaking achievement in deep-sea research off the Israeli Mediterranean coast!"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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A groundbreaking achievement in deep-sea research off the Israeli Mediterranean coast!<\/strong><\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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After a three-year break, we embarked on an exhilarating expedition, deploying the deep-sea robot “Yona” (a remotely operated vehicle, ROV) in Israel’s exclusive economic waters\u201460 km off the Tel Aviv coast\u2014within the Palmahim Disturbance, a designated marine protected area.
This fascinating scientific mission brought together top experts\u2014researchers, marine engineers, and leading professionals\u2014in a unique collaboration between the Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research, University of Haifa, Weizmann Institute of Science, Ariel University, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.<\/p>

Led by Prof. Yizhaq Makovsky and Dr. Maxim Rubin-Blum, we sailed from Haifa Port for five captivating days, deploying our ROV to a depth of 1,150 meters. Operated by our skilled team, the underwater robot, equipped with state-of-the-art cameras and a robotic arm, captured remarkable findings.<\/p>

The results? Absolutely thrilling! We successfully collected rare samples, made amazing observations, and deployed settlement devices to monitor ecosystem health and animal recruitment.<\/p>

These include:
Extreme scenes of brine flow and gas emissions, reminding of other planets.
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0Samples from the highly saline deep-sea brine pools\u2014extreme \u201clakes within the sea\u201d, hosting organisms adapted to extreme salinity and dissolved poisonous gases, such as hydrogen sulfide.
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0Rich and fascinating marine life \u2013 tubeworms, mollusks, sea urchins, deep-sea fish, and zooplankton swarms. Vast microbial biofilms and carious obscure organisms.
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0Deep-sea sharks and a myriad of shark eggs \u2013 most with alive embryos.
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0Carbonate rocks, inhabited by diverse fauna and microbiota.
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0Rarely studied seep biota, including zooplankton, fungi and protists.
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0ARMS settlement devices, now improved to ensure better settlement \u2013 placed within the framework of the Redress Project, aimed at restoring degraded deep-sea ecosystems.
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0Many more discoveries that will enhance our understanding of the Mediterranean’s deep-sea ecosystem.<\/p>

What does it take to pull off an ROV expedition?
A research vessel, a skilled and diverse crew\u2014including the captain and the crew of R\/V Bat-Galim, marine operations and logistics teams, a dedicated chief cook, expert ROV operators, scientists, marine engineers, and more. Also, extensive preparations and great weather!\u00a0
This expedition marks a new chapter in Israel’s deep-sea research, highlighting the importance of collaboration between the country\u2019s leading research and conservation organizations.<\/p>

Proud to be part of this groundbreaking research team!\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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After a three-year break, we embarked on an exhilarating expedition, deploying the deep-sea robot “Yona” (a remotely operated vehicle, ROV) in Israel’s exclusive economic waters\u201460 km off the Tel Aviv coast\u2014within the Palmahim Disturbance, a designated marine protected area. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marsci.haifa.ac.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marsci.haifa.ac.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marsci.haifa.ac.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marsci.haifa.ac.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marsci.haifa.ac.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marsci.haifa.ac.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marsci.haifa.ac.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marsci.haifa.ac.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marsci.haifa.ac.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marsci.haifa.ac.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}