10 years later, new visit to Gulf of Guinea cold-seep ecosystems

From 27 January to 28 February 2011, the WACS (West Africa Cold Seeps) research cruise, led by IFREMER, was conducted in the Gulf of Guinea aboard the research vessel Pourquoi pas?.

The multi-disciplinary and international scientific party was interested in a particular area along the Congo-Angola continental shelf: the submarine channel of the Congo River. Divided into two legs, the purpose of the WACS cruise was to study deep-sea ecosystems with different characteristics: cold seeps and the terminal lobes of the channel system.

Ten years after the ZaiAngo and Biozaire projects, technological progress made on the remotely operated vehicle Victor 6000 and the instruments deployed on the seafloor have provided new data that will enhance the understanding of ecosystem functioning in cold seeps.

See the follofwing press release:

Visit the WACS cruise web site (in French)