September 25, 2014
ROV technician
In this campaign with Oceana my work entails controlling the ROV´s HD camera and record on videotape. In addition, I control the hydraulic arm movements, with which the samples are taken for their later analysis. This is very motivating and exciting work, a little different every day.
I have participated in many campaigns using sidescan sonar, multibeam, etc., but this is the first time I´ve ever worked with this kind of ROV. This is all pretty new to me; I’m constantly learning new things and watching –until today- unexplored areas, so I consider myself very lucky.
Unfortunately, today the wind reached up to 25 knots, under these conditions, the ROV´s gear hoisting and lowering is rather complicated and dangerous for the crew. It’s a real shame as we are at 140 nm away from El Hierro and since conditions wouldn´t change shortly, we had to sail back.