With the support of the Biodiversity Foundation and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, Oceana has conducted over ten ROV dives at depths of between 80 and 1,000 meters around El Hierro Island in the Canaries, as well as several others with divers in shallower areas. Through this work, Oceana has documented large … Read more
Today we begin the day quite satisfied after leaving behind a spectacular first part of the campaign. During the past five days we have worked intensively on two productive seamounts that rise from depths greater than 3000-4000 m. We unveiled part of the secrets hold by the unexplored Atlantic seamounts of Dacia and Triton located … Read more
The glass sponges or hexactinellids are quite impressive. They consist of siliceous spicules, which draw many different geometric shapes, creating some of the most beautiful and unknown creatures on Earth. From the nearly 500 documented species a set of ten can be observed in the valley between the two peaks of the Triton seamount (around … Read more
Tonight we finally were hit by the trail of the storm so the sea was quite rough. We tried to make bathymetry at night to get an idea of where to sample the next day, but heavy swells reaching up to two meters and 15-knot winds, made it hard to use the ROV, so we … Read more
The government projects that El Hierro will be made into the first marine national park in Spain Today, Oceana launched an expedition with the support of Biodiversity Foundation to document the waters around the island of El Hierro, which is expected to become the first marine national park in Spain. The one-month campaign will be … Read more
This morning we woke up to the cry of: Whales!!! The sea was quite calm, and two northern or Rudolph whales (Balaenoptera borealis) were spotted from the Ranger while feeding at dawn. This time we set off to the second destination of this phase of the campaign, comprising the northern mountains of the Canary Islands. … Read more
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We have already protected nearly 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life - but there is still more to be done.
Oceana in Europe gratefully acknowledges EU funding support.
