Legacy: Mediterranean 2007

At dawn, we reach the coast facing Gandía and the first thing we see is a group of trawlers fishing in the area. As we head south, more trawlers appear. Some of them are fishing within the forbidden area at less than 50 meters depth, others are just on the border, while a few others … Read more

After sleeping in Columbretes where, by the way, we were the only boat anchored, we’ve gone to Placer de la Barra Alta to continue working with the ROV in the northeastern area. The depression we found last year is located there. The sea floor is similar throughout the entire area. At first, there is maerl … Read more

Finally, we left Palma de Mallorca at 1:00 in the morning and set sail towards El Placer de la Barra Alta. It was good sailing and at some point, with the jib hoisted, we reached 10 knots. At some 25 miles east of Columbretes we see a flock of shearwaters feeding on a bank of … Read more

We continue our work east of Cabrera. Again, we find some extensions of Laminaria rodriguezii, although less dense. We also find coralline and, at last, the gorgonians. There are not many and, if we are not mistaken, they are Paramuricea macrospina. Also, we find a few black corals that look like Antipathes sp. They are … Read more

Spectacular. Today we worked with the divers east of Na Redona to see the transition from here to the more eastern area where we’re working with the ROV. It’s a wall that plunges 25 meters with some areas at just 14 meters, where we see barracudas (Sphyraena sp.), picarels (Spicara spp.) and many other fish. … Read more

Today we visited Emile Baudot in the morning and Cabrera in the afternoon. At Emile Baudot, we worked between 110 and 245 meters on the western slope of the seamount. It’s less rich than the eastern slope, but interesting nonetheless. At approximately 125 meters depth, we saw a couple of African armored searobins (Peristedion cataphractum) … Read more

We’ve been taking samples in Emile Baudot. The ROV has gotten hooked twice: once on a rock and again on a longline. The amount of ropes, fishing lines and nets that are scattered around here is incredible. Towards the south, between 140 and 160 meters depth, there are some large rocks, some of them forming … Read more

Yesterday the 26th, we couldn’t sail and had to stay at port in Cabrera. Today we woke up at seven in the morning and sailed towards the south. While the divers explored the area of Los Estells, we did some transects. This has been an eventful day. When we submerged the ROV, we blew a … Read more

After navigating along the Italian coast for two days, on the morning of 5th June we arrived at the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the north-east coast of Sicily. The objectives at this point of the campaign were: on one hand to continue with the search for and documentation of illegal netters; and, … Read more

We left the shores of Corsica, and the stormy French waters, for the peace of La Maddalena archipelago, in the north of the island of Sardinia. Although Corsica made an excellent impression on us through the tranquillity of the streets of Bastia’s Vieux Port area, and the spectacular views of the Corsican coast, Sardinia also … Read more