Participant Interview:
Verena Tunnicliffe
Biologist
University of Victoria

Jeff: Could you comment on being a female scientist on board ship?
Verena: In oceanography it's been a long haul, but things have changed dramatically in the last ten years. Now you see women on the crew of the ship. You never saw women on the crew or on the bridge when I started. A turnover of generations from the Merchant Marines has helped. A lot of the guys on the ship's crew that were either Navy or Merchant Marines are retiring so you're starting to see people with a non-military attitude. Also, there is a general move toward women getting into professions that they were originally kept out of. When I first started going to sea some guys on the ship were very upset that I was there. I was not allowed to go into the crew's mess or allowed below decks.

Jeff: What do you find most fascinating about vent communities?
Verena: The tremendous biomass of the system. It's the highest biomass community in the ocean. Certain kinds of vents are comparable to soybean crops in terms of the amount of productivity that are there. A lot of that goes back to the microbial stuff. There's a mystery there that's interesting, but what captured me the most in doing the work was the evolutionary history of the animals. I wanted to know where they had come from in time and space. How is it they look like that? Most of the animals are new to science. It's the unusual nature of the animals. To me finding a new species is really exciting because it's a detective story, trying to figure out what it is, what it could be doing, and where it fits in. I take a lot of delight in that. There's a real feeling of wonder at an alien world which is still part of our planet and something we know so little about. I've made over 140 submersible dives and I've seen a lot of the ocean floor. Yet, every time I come out here it's still new. Whether it's new animals or new geology or new water properties. There's still so little we know. In a way it's very remote and you don't understand how somebody in Nebraska cares about the bottom of the ocean. But we still live in a connected world and with climate change issues, the world still has to care about what's happening in the deep ocean.

Jeff: Where would you like to see NeMO going in the future?
Verena: I think that NeMO is going to do two things. The first is to get more detailed local information and the second is to begin compiling the regional information. We've looked extensively at Cleft and Axial and Co-Axial and I think it would be interesting for NeMO to go back to those places and set a baseline. There's going to be another eruption out here and it will either be Cleft or Axial/Co-Axial. I think NeMO, as a local observatory on Axial, has a lot of potential. Not just in case there's an eruption, but also to understand long-term dynamics. NeMO's a wonderful program and I've always been grateful to NOAA. They are a great group to work with.

Vernena discusses life at sea .

Bag City Vent before camera was deployed. MTR mooring in background of tube worm colony which the camera is sending photos via satellite.