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September 15, 2018

Poor Visibility

BY: Carlos Minguell

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Driven by a weather report of increasing winds, we jumped into the water earlier than usual near the island of Bullergrund, near Vaasa.

The dive was similar to the ones we did yesterday: we dropped down to 8 meters and were unable to position the metallic frame we use for sampling because it kept on sinking into the muddy seafloor. The visibility here is a bit over half a meter and it took us 30 minutes to walk underwater from the from the shore using our compass as the only guide.

Only then, when we were dozens of meters off the coast, we began to spot the first algae-covered rocks and marine plants where we were able to document a few invertabrates like nudibranchs, ispopods, hydras, and a few opportunistic leeches waiting for any fish that happens to swim by.

After 93 minutes below, the swift breeze on the water’s surface confirmed the weather forecast: the wind increased, and we couldn’t conduct another dive. Our only option was to return to port and spend the rest of the afternoon editing photographs and  classifying samples.