July 3, 2016
Onto our 40th campaign day
The weeks are going by and each day we are experiencing something new or learning something new, making this expedition a very rewarding experience indeed. We’ve managed to swim at the same pace as jellyfish, see the way rays “fly” and witness the hatching of cuttlefish eggs. I reassure myself again that these waters, at 1,500m depth, hold a high degree of biodiversity. These waters are home to over 12,000 animal species and to over 1,300 varieties of microalgae, of which 22% are endemic. In this 0.8% of the planet’s ocean surface, important ecosystems come together, like the Posidonia seagrass or deep-sea coral reefs.
We’re now onto our 40th campaign day and we’ve done 56 ROV dives and 17 with diving cylinders and I can tell you that in each one of them, we have seen the remains of some kind of human activity. Bits of loose ends, fishing lines, nets, tyres, plastic – can all be seen when we dive. I don’t want to think that as our oceans fill up with rubbish, humans just turn a blind eye. So, from my little cabin, I want to send out a gentle reminder on that concern, so that we can continue to enjoy the seas, with the same respect and admiration that many of our ancestors had for our oceans.