We conducted three ROV dives today. One on the east side about 520 meters deep, one in a small canyon southeast about 380 m deep, and the last on a mound that reached up to 40 meters. In the first dive, we saw a mainly detrital sea floor and found some interesting things, including monkfish … Read more
Last night we made a dive to see if we could spot some deep sea sharks, which at that time are usually rising from deeper areas in search of prey. And just at about 500 meters deep we found a Deania cf. calcea, a small shark with an elongated and flattened nose. We continued to … Read more
Pirate fishermen have found a gold mine in deep-sea sharks and are illegally catching these vulnerable species to sell their highly valued liver oil. In recent months, vessels which are internationally blacklisted because of previous Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing activities (IUU fishing) have been engaging in rampant pirate fishing for deep-sea sharks in the … Read more
Today we worked east of the Gettysburg seamount. It is here, in the valley between the two underwater mountains that more interesting species often appear (and where we often see cetaceans). The sea is almost flat. It’s been a long but full day. We conducted dives on small 100-200 meter elevations found on the eastern … Read more
The first ROV immersio was to a sandy detrital bottom at 500 meters deep. There was little diversity. We found many solitary fan corals (Flabellum Chuni), several types of fish, a stripe, urchins, crinoids and many dead mackerels (Scomber japonicus). It looks like they were discards. On the surface we found a lot of storm-petrels, … Read more
According to the weather, we are going to get a break to work on the Gorringe bank. It may only be 2-3 days, so we have to make the best of it. Today we are in port (Vilamoura) doing paperwork and waiting for the new Portuguese scientists to come on board. In the morning we’ll … Read more
These days (September 29 and 30 and October 1st) we have been working in Faro, collaborating in a project about the effects of sea bottom trawling coordinated by the Algarve University. During the three days we have been filming the bottom opposite Faro, we have had two members of the project on board – Paulo … Read more
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