Legacy: Mediterranean 2006

The day starts off a little cloudy, but the sea is fairly calm. We head towards the south-west of Ibiza to document some coralligenous and rocky sea beds in this area. At Es Vedra we want to take a look at the state of the red gorgonians (Paramuricea clavata). On approaching the area, we admire … Read more

A little bit of everything today: marine meadow, Cystoseira sp. forests, rocky walls and caves. There is also a ‘fish cleaning station’ in this area. Instead of yesterday’s shrimps, the species in charge of the task today is the tort (Symphodus melanocercus), and its customers are mainly peacock wrasse (Symphodus tinca) and damselfish (Chromis chromis), … Read more

The condition of the sea continues to be perfect for our work. In the morning we had arranged to meet the people from the Marine Reserve, who are helping us to locate dive zones. We will be starting with a sandy sea bed with a few thickets of Posidonia oceanica where a metal structure has … Read more

Today is the start of the final part of this year’s expedition. We’re going to be taking samples from the sea beds around the Balearic Islands using divers, a robot submarine and dredging to classify the different biological communities in the area. During the first few days we’ll be diving between Ibiza and Formentera, and … Read more

This morning, Juan Cuetos and I crossed into Morocco through the Melilla border in order to inspect the Nador fishing port in search of drift netters. The “entrance to Europe” has a unique smell. A huge fence separates two worlds, Africa and Europe. We make our way through the noisy crowd that moves in all … Read more

And at last that is how the Ranger’s port engine roared once again, with a little piece of the Toftevaag, the Alnitak project ship; yes, you read correctly, one of our clutch discs was damaged and we were desperately trying to locate a machinist who could make one for us or a workshop that could … Read more

My first week on board the Ranger has been an experience full of mixed emotion, on the one hand, gradually getting to know each member of the crew has brought feelings of comfort (I feel as if I were at home) and admiration (each one of them has a vast store of knowledge that I … Read more

Yesterday, the ROV technicians arrived in order to prepare the equipment and begin our investigations in the waters of the Chella Massif (Macizo de Chella), also known as Seco de los Olivos. The ROV is a submarine Robot that allows us to film sea floors at depths which are impossible for divers to reach. Our … Read more

Today was the first day using the remotely operated vehicle “ROV” aboard the Ranger. On the way out to the research sight, most of the crew members were sitting in the kitchen area. Ricardo stuck his head in the door and yelled “pilot whales.” I shot out to the deck. I don’t remember the last … Read more

We woke up Sunday morning at sea and began preparations for the day. However due to difficulties with the underwater lights, the crane on the back of the boat, and the rough weather, the decision was made to head to port to insure that the boat was ready for the arrival of the ROV crew … Read more