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October 17, 2009

Chipiona. October 16-17, 2009

©OCEANA/ Eduardo Sorensen

 

We are back in Chipiona now. Before setting our course to Sagunto and wrapping up the campaign, we planned to work in the area surrounding Chipiona for these two days. That way, we could finish the work we did in August.

To do so, we made several submersions with divers during those two days. We documented the sea bottom in the area that we at Oceana think should be included in the Doñana protected marine area and farther offshore, at a spot where a wind turbine facility could be proposed. We took 12 samples with a dredger. We collected sediment samples that were directly analyzed on the ship.

In spite of the difficulties with the submersions due to the poor visibility in the area, we found some rocky areas where there were vast fields of gorgonians (Leptogorgia sarmentosa and Eunicella verrucosa) among which flourished large schools of African striped grunts (Parapristipoma octolineatum) and rubberlip grunts (Plectorhinchus mediterraneus).

Except for a sample with the dredger that came up empty because it landed on rock, the rest of the sediment was quite compact mud. In it, we mainly found dead horny augur shells (Urritela communis), some polychaetes, platyhelminths and crustacean pincers.