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June 18, 2010

First day in Seco de los Olivos

BY: Silvia García

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© OCEANA / Thierry Lannoy

 

LIFE+ INDEMARESToday we started studying the deep seabeds of Seco de los Olivos, a seamount in the Alboran Sea, 12nm off the Almeria coast. Oceana will study this seamount for the next 4 years in order to describe its habitats and species as part of the Indemares project, an EU LIFE+ project in which 10 important Spanish marine areas that are hotspots of biodiversity will be studied for inclusion in the Natura 2000 Network, the network of protected areas of conservation of European biodiversity.

It took us most of the day to submerge the ROV on one of the peaks close to the main seamount. We found large glass sponge fields among many other species that we will describe in detail. Using a dredge, we took samples of the seabed, comprised more of organic debris than minerals.