Chuck Fisher describes the expedition:

n the fifth leg of the last voyage of the year for the Research Vessel Atlantis, we are using the submersible ALVIN to explore the fantastic communities of animals that are found around hydrothermal vents on mid-ocean ridge spreading centers. In addition to the RV Atlantis a second Research Vessel, New Horizon, is also on station and full of biologists and associated laboratory gear. Three projects form the centerpiece of this expedition, although there are numerous other investigators on board from all over the world. Jim Childress and I are the principal investigators for a project that will utilize 12 of the 19 ALVIN dives of this series. The goals of these NSF-funded grants are to discover what and how many animals are associated with the different types of communities at the vents of the East Pacific Rise, and to collect the data necessary to calculate the levels of production and metabolism for entire communities and even whole vent sites. This will require close collaboration between my group on the Atlantis — which is making the necessary measurements and quantitative collections from the ocean bottom — and Childress' group, which is measuring metabolic and autotrophic rates on live animals, under pressure, in specialized aquaria on board the New Horizon.