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April 7, 2011

Day 1

BY: Hanna Paulomäki

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© OCEANA / Carlos Minguell

 

We left Copenhagen yesterday with butterflies in our stomachs. We are all very excited that the expedition finally started and we feel very fortunate to be part of such an experienced crew on this wonderful boat. During the night the ship cruised out from Öresund towards Kattegat with the aim of starting to explore the reefs and sandbanks of the area.

The first day’s goal was to test the research equipment we have on board. Wind was very strong, about 30 knots per hour making the work somewhat difficult. We found a sheltered area near Ebeltoft to test the ROV and made some interesting videos of the biodiversity there. Later on that day we moved to Ebeltoft Vig to get more shelter from the wind in order to test the diving equipment that will be using our team in very low water temperatures. The wind was unfortunately still too strong to carry out diving operations safely, and we decided instead to do more ROV filming. We were able to document beautiful sea anemones

about 15 meters deep. In addition we used the Van Veen dredge to identify samples of bottom fauna in the bay.It was a long but interesting day and now we just hope that the wind will slow down so we are able to reach the more exposed areas.