This cruise is part of the Seabed Mining And Resilience To EXperimental impact (SMARTEX) project funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (Grant Reference NE/T003537/1). This is the third UK cruise to the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the northern equatorial Pacific, an area likely to be targeted for deep-sea mining for polymetallic nodules. The first (JC120) was carried out in 2015 and the second, JC241 in 2023. Scientific aims: of the cruise were measurements of physical oceanography (mesoscale eddies and their impacts at the seafloor), geophysical survey (mapping the seabed at various resolutions), biology (the spatial scaling of biodiversity and natural geochemical drivers of biodiversity across a 100km transect), as well as studies of recolonisation rates, ecosystem function and ecotoxicology baselines. BGS were not on board, but the science team collected nodules during boxcore deployments. Samples have not yet been analysed (May 2026). More information and the cruise report are available at www.bodc.ac.uk/resources/inventories/cruise_inventory/report/18310/.
