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September 15, 2014

Whales

BY: Oceana Web

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© OCEANA / Carlos Minguell

 

This morning we woke up to the cry of: Whales!!! The sea was quite calm, and two northern or Rudolph whales (Balaenoptera borealis) were spotted from the Ranger while feeding at dawn.

This time we set off to the second destination of this phase of the campaign, comprising the northern mountains of the Canary Islands. This is Dacia, a mountain whose summit is at only 90 m deep and that was tried to be reached in Oceana´s first Canary Island expedition back in 2009; an unsuccessfully attempt due to bad weather.

Here we conducted three ROV dives, which gave us stunning images of an impressive forest of black corals (Stichopathes sp.) and of the strange carnivorous sponges Chondrocladia sp. and Cladorhiza abyssicola. But perhaps, the most exciting moment was during the night shift, when a large pod of dolphins made us company for a long time, shining like torpedoes due to the noctilucaes bioluminescence.