RRS James Cook Cruise 35, 7-19 Jun 2009. Sidescan sonar mapping of the Whittard Canyon, Celtic Margin

James Cook cruise 035 was aimed at the detailed mapping of the Whittard Canyon system along the Celtic Margin (NE Atlantic). In 12 days, &gt;700 km of track-lines were surveyed with the Towed Ocean Bottom Instrument (TOBI, carrying a 30 kHz sidescan sonar system with phase bathymetry capability, an 8 kHz chirp profiler and a magnetometer) and 6130 km2 of shipborne multibeam data was acquired over the 4 main branches of the canyon. This comprehensive and highly detailed dataset will provide new insights in canyon morphology, formation, sediment transport processes and into the resulting spatial distribution of benthic habitats. In addition, the data formed an indispensable base map for the planning of ROV dives during the follow-on cruise JC036.<br/

Transatlantic Surveys of Seabirds, Cetaceans and Turtles, July 2013 and July 2018

Analysis of multi-species tracking data suggest that an area of the deep northwest Atlantic bounded by Flemish Cap, Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone and Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) has a relatively high abundance and diversity of pelagic seabirds. It is also thought to be important for other wideranging, air-breathing higher predators, including cetaceans and tunas. The area’s oceanography is dominated by a system of banded zonal fronts associated with the North Atlantic Current and this may be responsible for levels of diversity and abundance that are unusual for oceanic waters. The area is currently therefore being considered by the OSPAR Committee as a candidate high seas Marine Protected Area (cMPA). The seabird distribution patterns inferred from tracking data were confirmed in part by research cruise DY080, which surveyed the area in June 2017. However, weather during that cruise was not ideal for detecting small and medium deep-diving cetaceans and relatively few other at-sea surveys have been carried out in the deep northwest Atlantic. Here, I summarise seabird, cetacean and turtle sightings from surveys carried out opportunistically during transatlantic crossings aboard a cruise ship in July 2013 and July 2018, which passed though the cMPA. In 2013, 180 km of track was surveyed, with the weather being ideal for detecting cetaceans in the southwest of the cMPA. In 2018, 470 km of track was surveyed. The weather was poorer for detecting cetaceans in the cMPA but ideal to the east of the MAR. Seabird data support the findings of previous studies, showing high seabird diversity and abundance between the Flemish Cap and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. During the cruises, great shearwaters, northern fulmars and Cory’s shearwaters dominated the avifauna of cMPA. Long-tailed and south polar skuas were also relatively abundant and a Fea’s petrel was sighted for the first time at sea in the cMPA, confirming tracking observations of this species. In 2013, a high diversity of cetaceans was recorded in the southwest of the cMPA, including Kogia and Mesoplodon spp. and in 2018 common minke whales were recorded for the first time in the cMPA. These results suggest that the cMPA has a relatively high diversity of cetaceans. An area of high cetacean diversity, including Sowerby’s beaked whales and northern bottlenose whales, was also encountered east of the MAR in 2018, in the vicinity of the Thulean Rise

CelticGraph: Drawing Graphs as Celtic Knots and Links

Celtic knots are an ancient art form often attributed to Celtic cultures, used to decorate monuments and manuscripts, and to symbolise eternity and interconnectedness. This paper describes the framework CelticGraph to draw graphs as Celtic knots and links. The drawing process raises interesting combinatorial concepts in the theory of circuits in planar graphs. Further, CelticGraph uses a novel algorithm to represent edges as B\'ezier curves, aiming to show each link as a smooth curve with limited curvature.Comment: Appears in the Proceedings of the 31st International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2023

Besides Looking: Patrimony, Perfomativity and Visual Cultures

David Dibosa’s paper, 'Besides Looking: Patrimony, Performativity and Visual Cultures in National Art Museums', is an exploration and a further elaboration of the relations between the development of visual media practices within the research – what we have previously indicated as stemming from practice-based research approaches – and transmigrational visual cultures. David asks how perspectives derived from the study and articulation of Visual Cultures, (Hall, Mirzoeff, Evans, Rogoff) might usefully frame our understanding of transmigrational ‘viewing strategies’ and more specifically the practices of Tate Encounters’ participants. He introduces an important counter to the idea that either the art museum or the research framing can address the transmigrational viewer other than in an engagement at the point of viewing. This stresses the dynamic, rather than settled, historical sense of migrant experience that has become contained in notions of ‘heritage’, and ethnic categorisations. He looks to performativity to offer a way out of the impasse of categorisation and his focus upon transmigrational experience as fluid leads him to the idea that a corresponding art museum viewing strategy might be that “which has not yet been seen” or “a kind of seeing on the move”