Legacy: Bay of Biscay 2008

We departed from Malpica and headed towards the Baldaio bank, only 3 miles off the coast. The divers are going to dive in the main canal that divides the bank in two sections. We must take into account that there will probably be strong currents. The minimum depth at this bank, measured during the lowest … Read more

We carried out two immersions with the ROV and two dives with the divers, covering the west, north and southeast coasts of the islands, so we’ve seen a variety of seabeds today. It’s a shame, though, that the dives with the ROV have been shorter than planned -we usually go for 3 hours- and we … Read more

That’s the North for you. Force 6 winds mean we are stuck at port. We certainly can’t work in these conditions, but some purseiners are heading out. We spend the day in port and many locals come by, interested in our ship and the work we are doing in the area. Activity at the port … Read more

We now head towards the northern coasts of the islands. The divers have to work double today, because we’ve changed ROV pilots and Mauro, the new pilot, doesn’t get here until this afternoon. The first dive is at a seamount that surfaces up to 15 meters. Although the weather conditions are quite complicated today (it’s … Read more

We are now near the Sisargas Islands, a groups of islands that were not included in the National Park of the Atlantic Islands. As such, the sea bottoms are not protected and fishing activities around the islands are not regulated according to environmental interests. The distance that separates these islands from the ones included in … Read more

Today, we will be filming in a seamount known as Villar de Fuertes, 12 miles off the Muros estuary. We submerge the ROV to 100 meters and find a large concentration of Venus’ girdles in the first 15 meters (Cestum veneris), a ctenophore than can reach up to 1.5 meters in length. We also spot … Read more

We departed at 6:00 a.m. from Portosín port. We headed towards an unnamed seamount located quite near the Villar de Fuertes mount. We want to get there early to avoid the north winds that pick up in the afternoon and force us to stop working. The seamount is very steep on its southern slope. Here, … Read more

At last we were able to get some work done. After two days in port, we were beginning to get nervous. We fixed the crane and are working on the ROV. The divers are documenting some fantastic gorgonians at 40m depth, at last. Bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins and even a basking shark measuring over 4 … Read more

Although the weather predictions said we were going to have three bad days due to strong winds, this morning is totally calm. We decide to head towards Salvora again and dive on the south side of the island, off a rock known as “piedra Pegar”. We spot a group of common dolphins on the way … Read more

We woke to strong winds coming from the northeast, but we attempted to go out anyway to verify if the seas were calmer outside the estuary. As we were heading towards Salvora, we notice that the conditions are good inside the estuary, in case we can’t go out to sea. Luckily, the island affords some … Read more