Legacy: Bay of Biscay 2008

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

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