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September 25, 2009

Punta Teno, Tenerife, September 25, 2009

BY: Er Pisha

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©OCEANA/ Carlos Suárez

 

We set off at night where we were anchored near Los Gigantes, where some crew members were chatting at the CHILL OUT, which is nothing more than the Oceana Ranger’s bathtub.

We reached Tenerife in the morning, where we are going to submerge the ROV first.

The goal for today, besides of course identifying “fish, sponges, coral…”, is to reach the Devil’s depth, 666 meters.

Of course we were also spotting birds so Indi could identify them. We began the submersion with something of a current on the surface, but it gradually went away. We turned on the ROV’s lights at about 200 meters. It is incredible how clear the water is here. The R.O.V.’s sonar began to detect the bottom at 25 meters when the depth was still 635 meters. We began to have doubts that we could attain it, and when “CERVANTES”, that’s what we call the ROV, hit bottom, the depth gauge marked 665.9 meters. We scurried to gain a little more depth, but it seems the currents did not want us to reach the gates of “LUCIFER”. However, after awhile we reached the desired depth of 666 meters.

After the photos de rigueur, we began the transect, and that is when we set the depth record with the ROV, for this and all Oceana campaigns: 677.5 meters.

Then it was the divers’ turn at Punta Teno where they would film and photograph black coral, gerardia coral and a black stingray.