Ninety-three percent of Trinidad and Tobago’s marine territory lies deeper than any recreational diver could ever reach. There, the Atlantic plate is slowly pushed beneath the Caribbean plate, cracking open the seafloor and exposing long-buried methane, conditions that feed rare chemosynthetic ecosystems like cold seeps and mud volcanoes, where animals survive on chemical energy instead of sunlight. And its twilight waters likely support numerous mesophotic coral and sponge reefs. Scientists have documented 451 species in these waters so far, but suspect the true number could be more than 1,600. These entire ecosystems have been thriving for millennia, remaining almost completely unexplored.
This past July, that changed. For the first time, a team led primarily by Trinbagonian scientists, with Dr. Diva Amon at the helm, boarded Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor (too) for a month-long mission to map, film, and sample these ecosystems. Historically, most of what’s known about the region came from outside research teams, with the vast majority of specimens collected leaving the country for good, excluding the local scientific community from data about its own environment. This time the team used tools ranging from the high-tech ROV SuBastian to DORIS, a “low-cost” camera system built to make deep-sea science accessible to nations historically shut out of it.
Two members of that team came home with more than data: they brought unforgettable memories of the days on board. Kyle Foster, an M.Phil Deep-Sea Biology student at the University of the West Indies, split his month between the ROV control room and testing DORIS at its deepest deployment yet. Shauna Edghill, an early-career ocean professional with a BSc in Ecology and Environmental Science from the University of the West Indies, helped lead the public outreach that let schoolkids and TV audiences watch the deep-sea live for the first time, then spent her nights processing the specimens that the ROV brought up to the surface for study.
Kyle Foster
| Shauna Edghill
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| Kyle Foster grew up on Barbados, the exposed peak of the very same underwater ridge his expedition spent a month mapping. So in his words, he felt he was exploring an extension of his home. Between logging ROV dives and preserving specimens headed for a local museum instead of a foreign lab, Kyle also helped push the “low-cost” DORIS camera system to its deepest run ever. But it’s not just the record depth that matters. The camera revealed species that the million-dollar ROV didn’t detect, paving the way for a future of deep-sea science accessible to everyone. | For Shauna Edghill, this expedition started weeks before the ship ever left port: in classrooms and TV studios, raising awareness about the largest national biome of Trinidad and Tobago, the deep sea. Once on board, her days ran on a different clock: the real work began the moment the ROV surfaced, in a race to log, photograph, and cryopreserve every specimen before the next dive. Her nights ended with swapping stories with teammates in an atmosphere of collaboration and camaraderie she says she’d never experienced before, living and working together for an entire month toward one common goal. |
| Read Kyle’s story | Read Shauna’s story |
Along the way, the historic Caribbean-led expedition revealed and documented rare ecosystems and intriguing and beautiful wildlife, some likely never seen before. The team discovered 25 cold seeps with animals thriving on chemical energy generated by methane rather than sunlight and 17 species likely new to science. They recorded over 50 species in Trinidad and Tobago for the first time and mapped over 1,000 km2 of previously uncharted seafloor.
Beyond the discoveries themselves, the expedition helped build lasting scientific capacity in the region, with half of the team being students and early-career researchers from the Caribbean. By collecting this comprehensive dataset, the mission aims to inform ocean stewardship in Trinidad and Tobago and beyond.
Find out more about the expedition here.