Oceana | Protecting the World's Oceans

Author: Silvia Garcia, marine scientist
Date: October 13, 2012

Although it was still not looking good based on the waves and currents, we headed out early to work, but this time, we used the Van Veen dredge, not the ROV. Our plan was to use the dredge to collect samples from different points around Seco de los Olivos. We got as far as 14 dredges before it became impossible to continue, so we stopped and returned back to port.

Author: Silvia Garcia, marine scientist
Date: October 11, 2012

The world is upside down: we came from offshore in the Atlantic wearing short sleeves and sandals and where the ocean was almost dead calm, to arrive into the "little" Mediterranean sea, where it is so rough for October that we are forced to stay moored in Almerimar. We arrived at Seco de los Olivos after the crossing at 2:00 am, hoping to conduct a nighttime immersion of the ROV, but it was impossible.

Author: Silvia Garcia, marine scientist
Date: October 9, 2012

At 9:00 pm today we’ll head back to Seco after spending a few good days of work in the Gorringe. It should take about two days of sailing, during which time we expect to see whales, particularly in the Strait and the Alboran Sea, where they are usually easy spot. But for that, we’ll need good weather, and the forecast is saying we’ll have fog the morning we get to the Strait.

Author: Ricardo Aguilar - Expedition Coordinator
Date: October 7, 2012

We conducted three ROV dives today. One on the east side about 520 meters deep, one in a small canyon southeast about 380 m deep, and the last on a mound that reached up to 40 meters.

In the first dive, we saw a mainly detrital sea floor and found some interesting things, including monkfish (Lophius budegassa and Chaunax pictus) and an amphora.

In the second, a rocky area with lots of life teeming in small caves and crevices, including roughies, parrot fish, forkbeards ... but we also saw too many fishing lines and entangled ropes and nets.