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May 26, 2016

Off to a Good Start

BY: Enrique Talledo

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As we set sail out on our new expedition today, those fond, vivid memories from last year’s expedition came floating back to us all on board. The weather was on our side too – just the right combination of a light breeze, pleasant temperature and a 10-metre visibility which is characteristic of the waters we’re currently in.

Our objective for today is to document a sand-bed area close to the sea shore and Cymodocea nodosa seagrass meadows. Different kinds of molluscs like the Pinna nobilis, star fish such as Astropecten, hermit crabs and flatfish have been the major sightings so far in this underwater area. Then we were all back on board feeling happy with the audiovisual information we had captured there.

Later on today we’ll be downloading the files from today’s dive to identify species while other crew members will be getting preparations together for the rest of the days we’ll be out at sea – there’s no going back to land for a while now.

The ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) will descend beyond shelf to capture images at a deeper depth. The interesting thing is that some of these areas have hardly been studied and the data we’ll gather will be of great interest to be able to devise management and protection plans for a Mediterranean at risk.