Finally the sea offered us a beautiful calm day, so we planned two dives with deep-sea divers, un under Cabezo la Vaca and the other at Cabo Quejo. In the first dive, at less than 1 nautical mile from shore, to the west of Cabo Mayor, the rocky bottom was covered by algae, mainly of … Read more
After two days waiting in Santander without having been able to dive at all, everyone on board is anxious to dive and document the sea bottom. However, working conditions outside the bay continue to be unsuitable. Pablo López invites us to go diving with him at Isla de la Torre, an area strongly influenced by … Read more
Almost 50% of these long-living ecosystems have disappeared from European waters. Some coral formations date back more than 8,000 years. The Oceana Ranger research vessel has discovered deep-sea white coral in the Aviles Canyon. The deep-sea coral was identified using an underwater robot, which can work down to 600 meters. The first colonies of white … Read more
Joan and Manuel continue working to solve the ROV’s problems, but for now, we still can’t document deep seabeds. Since the weather conditions outside the bay do not allow the divers to work, we stay in port and carry out some maintenance work on the equipment. Pablo López, a biologist who works in the Santander … Read more
We set sail at 8:20 from Santander in search of the seamounts near the city in order to dive and document the seabeds, although the sky was clouded over and the wind was causing some waves. We’ve had problems with the ROV and we’re waiting for some spare parts to arrive from Barcelona. So, the … Read more
Although the morning was completely clouded over, with winds from the N-NW, we carried out two dives with the ROV at two seamounts off the Galizano coast: La Maruca and El Castro seamounts, areas where artisanal fisheries have traditionally operated. The dive at La Maruca, at approximately 120 meters depth, was complicated due to the … Read more
First thing in the morning, we returned to the Llanes Canyon and submerged the ROV up to 240 meters depth. We documented the flat, sandy seabed with low density of organisms. Although we did find various specimens of the anemone Actinauge richardi, holothurians Eostichopus regalis and sea urchins Echinus acutus. It seems especially important that … Read more
We begin the day by planning a dive in front of Cape Peñas, but we had to suspend it due to the wind and rough seas, and decided to set sail to Cantabria. We recorded the depth at various points around Llanes Canyon in order to get an idea of the morphology of the seabed … Read more
We set sail from the port of Gijón at 7 in the morning and headed towards the Avilés Canyon in order to find and document the white coral. When we reach the canyon, facing Cape Peñas, almost 9 miles from the coast, we submerge the ROV and border the southern coast of the canyon. Here, … Read more
What a day. Peñas Cape has surprised us with a forest of cup sponges (Phakellia ventilabrum) at only 25 meters depth. The divers dove off the Merendálvarez reef, NNE of the cape, and recognised it because they’ve seen it so many times on the seabeds we’ve filmed with the ROV, always at 80-100 meters depth. … Read more
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