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July 20, 2017

Expedition in numbers – from a scientific perspective

BY: Oceana Web

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Today we’re moored in the port of Hirsthals, enjoying a day off after the Norwegian leg of the expedition. We’re half way through the expedition so now is a good time as ever to stop and check over all the work done so far, and to take stock of everything we have seen, documented, explored and labeled.

The weather has been, so far, on our side – allowing us to get some good work done and making the first half of the expedition really productive – I just hope it stays that way until the end!

In numbers, up to now, we’ve done 20 scuba dives, 50 dives with the underwater robot (ROV), 48 grabs and deployed a CTD device 15 times (to measure oceanographic parametres such as conductivity, temperature and depth.

Out of the 48 sediment grabs from the ocean floor, we’ve sorted through 386 individual samples and managed to identify the majority of them already.

All this material will be carefully analysed once we’re back in the office and will take several months. Finally, all this work will result in a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that will be shared with the relevant authorities in the 5 countries’ waters we have been working in, which will ultimately help to protect valuable ecosystems in the North Sea!