“Expedition into Corral Land”: That is the title Thomas Willke has given to a ten-page report that appears in the October issue of Bild der Wissenschaft, in which he describes an expedition on board the research vessel “MARIA S. MERIAN”. The research trip was led by Professor Dierk Hebbeln from the Faculty of Earth Sciences and the University of Bremen’s Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM). The expedition team was cruising around the borders of the Caribbean from 14 March until 7 April 2012.

One of the goals pursued by the expedition was to learn more about cold-water corrals. We still know very little about these corrals that live in the dark and cold water, even though they are to be found all around the world. For instance, we know almost nothing about where they originate. It is also a mystery why they can only be found in certain areas of the sea, and not in other regions of similar ecological make up.

With the help of state-of-the-art technology, the international team of marine researchers on the Merian discovered that they are also spread unevenly throughout the Caribbean Sea. Just off the coast of Yucatan, for instance, they abound; but – contrary to expectations and previous findings—they are quite scarce in the waters of Florida and the Bahamas. The data sent back by the unmanned remotely controlled dive robot carried by the research vessel proved invaluable to the research team.

In his article in Bild der Wissenschaft, Thomas Willke presents a vivid and—even for the layman—comprehensible account of the work processes on board and how the modern technology functions. His excursion into the origins of the Atlantic Ocean is highly recommended.

Read more about the expedition in the logbook of the MARIA S. MERIAN.