The objective today is to film in the Fría Cove where hake is fished (Merluccius merluccius) near the Avilés Canyon, and the fishermen’s association of Cudillero has requested we document the area. We find clouds of silvery pouts (Galiculus argenteus), a small fish that constitutes the main diet for hake in this area. There is … Read more
Today, we tried to find the white coral again. The current has made it impossible to combine the movement of the boat with the current at 200 meters depth, where the ROV was located. The boat would continuously be dragged away from the ROV and it was impossible to follow the route we had planned. … Read more
We reach the Avilés Canyon, 17 miles northwest of Gijón. The canyon drops to almost 2000 meters depth and is one of the deepest in the world, only 8 miles from the mouth of the Avilés estuary or ria. Ye el paraisu de los “Kraken”, in other words, it is one of the few places … Read more
Today we are going to do research in the Avilés Canyon. For hours, we zigzag with the boat in order to create a complete profile of the seabed with the computers on board. That way we can decide which area we are going to film. The steeper the slope, the more species we are likely … Read more
We head out looking for 3 seamounts that appear on the nautical chart. They drop approximately 150 meters under the water in an area with a total depth of 1000 meters. Like other times, after various hours of searching, we can’t find two of them. It’s really frustrating because we’ve lost valuable time. At least … Read more
Today was our last day in Galician waters. We take a couple of dives with the ROV, on a seamount 30 miles from the coast and on a continental shelf 25 miles from Ribadeo. These distances require almost 4 hours of sailing, so we leave the port of Viveiro at 6 a.m. Luckily, the weather … Read more
At 8:00, as we are leaving the Ria de Viveiro, we start the day off with a large group of common dolphins –around 25-, calm seas and gentle sailing towards the mouth of the estuary. We are lucky enough to see a young dolphin jumping vigorously, lifting his entire body out of the water. It’s … Read more
We continue east along the Galician coast and head to the Niebla seamount, 6.7 miles off Cape Ortegal, at 100 meters depth. With the help of Olex, the programme that helps us establish a bathymetric profile of the seabed, we verify that the depths that appear on the charts are not correct. It is actually … Read more
Many of you will not remember, or were not born yet, but years ago, some of us worked hard on a document called “La Carta de Cedeira.” This text requested the banning of bottom trawling, the creation of marine reserves and support for sustainable fisheries. This would not have been significant if it weren’t for … Read more
ur second day filming the Bermeo seamount was very special. Three Minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) have accompanied our boat for more than 1 hour, getting as close as 2-3 meters from us. They were feeding, two large and one small whale, which is the one that came close to us various times. The adults were … Read more
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