Chipiona. October 16-17, 2009

Ana de la Torriente

We are back in Chipiona now. Before setting our course to Sagunto and wrapping up the campaign, we planned to work in the area surrounding Chipiona for these two days. That way, we could finish the work we did in August.

To do so, we made several submersions with divers during those two days. We documented the sea bottom in the area that we at Oceana think should be included in the Doñana protected marine area and farther offshore, at a spot where a wind turbine facility could be proposed. We took 12 samples with a dredger. We collected sediment samples that were directly analyzed on the ship.

In spite of the difficulties with the submersions due to the poor visibility in the area, we found some rocky areas where there were vast fields of gorgonians (Leptogorgia sarmentosa and Eunicella verrucosa) among which flourished large schools of African striped grunts (Parapristipoma octolineatum) and rubberlip grunts (Plectorhinchus mediterraneus).

Except for a sample with the dredger that came up empty because it landed on rock, the rest of the sediment was quite compact mud. In it, we mainly found dead horny augur shells (Urritela communis), some polychaetes, platyhelminths and crustacean pincers.

Crossing from the Canary Islands to Chipiona. 10-15 October 2009.

Carlos Pérez

We woke up in Puerto Calero (Lanzarote) on October 9th. We fill up the fuel tanks early in the morning and spend the day preparing the boat for the crossing, returning to the peninsula. The weather forecast is not good, with northeast winds force 5/6, but we have to adhere to our schedule.

We have to try to submerge the ROV on the Dacia and Concepción seamounts but the weather forecast is not looking good so we are going to sail over and see if conditions improve.

At 9:00 in the evening, after a quiet dinner, we set sail from Puerto Calero and head northeast. The Oceana Ranger is behaving well.

The next day, we sail with our mainsail reefed, as required by the mountains located northeast of our position. We plan on taking the sea head-on as we save fuel to reach the peninsula.

Wind and engine, litres per hour and knots, straight line or tacking, reaching the straits ahead of time or just in time... racking your brain 24 hours a days, tick tock the clock doesn't stop and we have a schedule to keep.

By the afternoon, the sea hasn't changed and the conditions are heavier. We can't operate the ROV in these conditions because it's dangerous for our sailors, who have to put the machine into the water and take it out without damaging it and themselves. The seamounts are out of our reach because we can’t wait any longer so we decide to head for the peninsula before wearing ourselves out waiting for the weather to change.

On October 11, with winds head-on, we set sail for Cádiz. Those with sailing experience calmly breeze through the crossing, getting quickly used to the watch routine and the bouncing bunk beds. Those with less experience on the high seas start to feel the effects of not seeing land for three days, repeating the usual behaviour: constantly looking at the charts, asking questions about our position, pacing up and down!!! ... We’ve seen it all before and soon they will have learned the lesson: “Being at sea requires little talk, lots of food and little walking" (according to an old sea wolf from Torrevieja). Everything’s under control. Good travel companions.

Three days later we enter the Atlantic side of the Straits. Winds are forecasted at force 7/8. We head straight in and cross with 3-meter waves, taking the sea from the starboard side of the bow. The Oceana Ranger behaves well, as always, and we reach Trafalgar in four hours, heading straight for Chipiona as the waves get smaller and smaller. At last, we reach Chipiona at 18:30, clean up, wash down, showers… end of crossing.

Puerto Calero. 9 October 2009.

Ana de la Torriente

Yesterday, we dove for the last time in the Canary Islands, so now we are organising our trip back home and waiting for the winds to calm down so we can work for a few days on the Dacia and Concepción seamounts.

Some of us took advantage of our day off in Puerto Calero to organise the trip (last chance to shop before we set sail because we estimate we’ll be at sea for at least 5 days), others to rest or get to know the towns, and others to go diving for the last time in the Canary Islands.

We received a visit from Silvia González Ruiz, the coordinator of the Marine Reserve of La Graciosa and northern islands of Lanzarote, and Beatriz Ayala, representing WWF/Adena in the Canary Islands. We talked with them about the different conservation initiatives being undertaken in the Canary Islands, about the important role played by the marine reserves in the protection of resources and about the work we’ve been developing in the islands during the last two months.

At night, we set sail from Puerto Calero and headed for the seamounts.

Roque del Este, Lanzarote. 8 October 2009.

Ana de la Torriente

Today, we began working west of Isla Graciosa. The divers explored La Burrera

in Punta Gorda early this morning. Thanks to their description of Chinijo, we confirmed the effects of conservation produced by marine reserves: large quantities of seagrass, high levels of diversity among fish species and large banks of fish.

The ROV was submerged in Roques del Este. Although this was one of the shortest dives in our entire campaign, we were able to document two new species of fish in just one hour: an Atlantic spotted flounder (Citharus linguatula) and a species from the Anthomastus family different from the ones seen during other dives.

Montaña Clara, La Graciosa, Chinijo Archipelago, Lanzarote. October 7, 2009.

Gorka Leclercq.

Today, Wednesday, we set sail at seven a.m. from the port of Caleta del Sebo, on the island of La Graciosa. This enclave in itself is of stunning beauty, but it also coincides with a climate of calm seas, like what we have had these past few days. This makes it even more beautiful, if I can say that.

We set our course to the north of Montaña Clara Island to make our first ROV submersion where we were once again able to document a wide variety of species. These included smooth grenadiers (Caelorinchus caelorinchus), flytrap anemones (Actinoscyphia sp), a large anglerfish (Lophius piscatoris), and what we couldn’t miss, another specimen of dogfish, in this case a blackmouth catshark (Galeus melastomus).

Once the submersion was over, it was the divers’ turn to submerge in “La Roncadera”, a craft located off Las Conchas beach (since I’m from San Sebastián but live nearby on the island of Lanzarote, it is if I felt twice as at home here).

The submersion did not let us down and we managed to document a wide variety of species, among them the first angel shark (Squatina squatina) of the campaign. As always, we came away wanting to extend the submersion, but nitrogen is boss, and we had to ascend to the surface to conclude today’s dive.

The activity on the Oceana Ranger was non-stop, and as soon as we got on board, Captain Nuño Ramos set his course for the second ROV point to the south of La Graciosa Island.

For me personally, it has been one of the most rewarding ROV submersions of the campaign. We were dealing with a sandy bottom that is normally rather dull, because the “life” usually concentrates on rocky bottoms which is where most species seek food and shelter. Nevertheless, this time around, the sand was choc full of large glass sponges (Asconema setubalense), gorgonians (Paramuricea sp), black coral (Antipathes sp, Batipathes sp), and among the fauna we came across, of note was another redeye gaper Chaunax sp) with its spectacular orange color and another blackmouth catshark (Galeus melastomus).

When the dive was over, we set sail again for Caleta del Sebo on la Graciosa where we will spend the night in order to continue working tomorrow at this marine reserve in Northern Lanzarote and the islets of the Chinijo Archipelago.

La Isleta, Fuerteventura. October 6, 2009.

Conchin de Pedro.

Back on the Oceana Ranger... Who would have guessed? I’m very happy.

Everything is still in its place. I have even been able to observe and enjoy some major improvements to equipment which I am constantly needing to use. An example would be a huge mechanized system for lowering and hoisting the famous ROV ballast.

Today just a few ROV submersions behind me (for now), but I can already feel their effects... my arms are no longer part of my body and my hands are increasingly more swollen and reddened.

The current crew has not changed much from the crew I met during my previous experience as a Oceana Ranger sailor. So I don’t even need to mention that I feel at ease just as I would in my own home. There are only a few new people to me, though thanks to their logs, not entirely so.

Ana, the only woman on board the ship since the campaign began in Sagunto, looks satisfied to have a female shipmate. However, with our tasks, which are quite different, we not yet found the right time for gossiping, but that will come. Always alert, writing down all types of sightings and events in the “meeting room”, watching the images that the ROV transmits in real time. I, on the other hand am on the Ranger’s stern yanking the umbilical cable up and down, getting a suntan and yearning for the “bring it all up” order to come.

Nuño, our captain, seated on his throne helps us generously with tugs, making the umbilical cable fall straight down, and it was easier for us to pull it up on deck. At the same time, during the submersion, he maneuvered again and again with a roguish effort to prevent any possible umbilical cable snag with our propellers.

Carlos Pérez, in his bathtub corner, wore down his fingers pressing buttons to raise and lower the ballast. To give you an idea, lowering the ballast means pressing the same button for approximately 45 minutes. If it is released by mistake, it will plummet out of control and end up completely on the bottom. There were only two ROV submersions today. There was no diving today because we extended the first ROV submersion considerably: up to six hours. This was because we found a very interesting area. In this area, we were able to observe two gulper sharks that swam by the ROV without even flinching. A gorgonian Isidella elongata as well (seen for the first time since the expedition began in the Canary Islands), a very odd sea urchin with very long spines (Coelopleurus sp.) for our experienced scientists, and of course, a field of glass sponges (Mexican hat) Asconema Setubalense, approximately 70 cm long by 15 cm in diameter.

I love writing in the log, and I would keep going until I bored you to death, but since good things are twice as good if they are short, I am saying goodbye until next time. I am glad to be aboard the ship again.

La Herradura and La Pela, Fuerteventura. October 4, 2009.

Nuño Ramos

A big, juicy steak.

A delight that lies some thirty terrible miles from here. We will have to stoically wait a few more hours. We are on the west coast of Fuerteventura, and we are going to port thanks to the scientific director’s immeasurable magnanimousness. We will land and rest for an entire day to come back to the onslaught of this campaign’s final stage. It is turning out to be more successful than ever on all accounts. But more erudite diaries will talk about this. We will stick to our thing.

We have spent three days slogging through the waters without touching land: ROV below, ROV above, divers in the water, get back on board, more ROV, night watches to the rhythm of the ship to reach the new submersion point at dawn... Anyway, all those things that have been narrated for two months now.

But our mood has not dwindled because we are already thinking about “T h e b i g j u i c y s t e a k.” And it’s not that we eat bad on the ship, no, not at all, but there’s no grill. Or oxen either. And these are things that you end up missing... Aren’t they?

In the previous log entry that I wrote, I was complaining about the strong trade winds that didn’t let us work at ease. So in this entry, I should talk about, out of elegance, the absence of these trade winds, and therefore how well we get around now. Although I should mention that there always has to be a treacherous current that questions the ship’s and/or its crew’s maneuverability. But until now, we have always come out of everything fine. So: May it last! For now, the sea is calm, and you can barely perceive the restful bobbing of a ground swell sea that must come from God knows what remote parts where, those poor souls must be in ships strapping themselves down with terrible hurricanes. How fine we are in the Canary Islands!

With a big, juicy steak on our plates, and, of course, some wrinkled potatoes cooked in seawater with Canarian mojo sauce. Cheers!

Banquete and Amanay, Fuerteventura. October 3, 2009.

Josep María Rovirosa "Pitu"

It’s 7:15, the day is dawning slowly, like the way most are waking up aboard the ship. Charly is on watch on the bridge, and Captain Nuño is washing the windows the same way people do at stop lights in big cities.

Ricardo Aguilar started the day needling me, telling me I’m really bad because yesterday we found a Lophelia for the first time, but it was dead. It is a very large coral of biological interest found on reefs. It can grow up to 6 meters high and thus create a habitat for many species of wildlife. But unfortunately, we rarely find this type of coral alive because most of them are dead and have been for several years. These are considered to be subfossils. As the ROV’s pilot, I will consider this as a challenge between my navigator, Siscu and me. We won’t take our eyes off the scene until we find it.

Today we will start off with the ROV in el Banquete off of Fuerteventura where they have told us that we can find some volcanic cones that may yield us countless surprises. I hope the Lophelia is around here. It would be quite a finding.

We hit bottom at 9:04 at 406 meters. What a trip! We came across several dogfish (Squalus megalops). The spines on their dorsal fins are characteristic. They pass by us very quickly at a close distance to the ROV. It is a small species reaching up to 70 cm, and we saw them in all sizes. Among them, we also spotted up to three sharpnose sevengill sharks (Heptranchias perlo), another species of shark with a single dorsal fin and a black-tipped caudal fin. These sharks do not grow more than a meter and a half. We spent 15 minutes on the bottom and we never stopped seeing dogfish everywhere. What a treat! Among so many sharks, another elasmobranch appeared before our eyes. It was a large bottlenosed skate (Rostroraja alba), and it touched the ROV several times. Sometimes I think that they are the ones who find us, and not us the ones who find them. We are on a soft bottom where there is not much life around. We were lucky to see so many dogfish as we did. At 10:31 we found the first rock. It must surely be part of the volcanic cone that we were looking for. There we found an incredible burst of life: sponges, gorgonians, fish and other creatures. The most abundant sponge is the glass sponge (Asconema setubalense). They are quite large, some over a meter in the shape of a hat. There are white and orange black coral (Leiophates sp.) and yellow coral (Stichopates sp.). We were taken aback by a large purple gorgonian that we have been unable to identify, another challenge for Riki. A vertebrate fish or two appeared among sponges and coral such as a conger eel (Conger conger) and a cephalopod, a small cuttlefish with a defiant pose. We spent more than two hours at the bottom, and we still continued seeing dogfish. The number of dogfish that passed before the camera since the beginning is astounding. At 11:21, a common eagle ray showed up (Myliobatis aguila); very odd at a depth of 372 meters. I can’t believe it! Another dead Lophelia. Two days finding them in this condition, but no sign of a live one. It’s making it difficult for me. My desire to find one with open polyps is growing even more. We finished the submersion with some trumpetfish (Macroromphosus scolopax). It was already twelve o’clock then, and the divers asked to go to the surface.

We concluded the submersion assessing the number of sharks, another dead Lophelia, but few “critters” in general.

Until next time, TTT.

Gando and Arigana, Grand Canary. October 2, 2009.</strong

<strong>Carlos Minguell

This morning we left the port of Grand Canary at 6:15 a.m. (This is what the sailors told me as I was catching 40 winks at that hour in my cubicle). The plan for the day began with a ROV submersion at about -450 m in Bahía de Gando on the east coast of Grand Canary. It seemed like fun to me; especially at the beginning when we saw two “galludos” (they are sharks but do not scare you) and a pair of Actinoscyphia anemones that we call “flytraps” on board because of their striking similarity to the terrestrial plants of the same name. The coincidence does not end here: Ricardo, the campaign director says that they also hunt their prey in a similar fashion (and if Riki says it, it’s a fact). Farther ahead on the muddy bottom, there was a multitude of wavy dunes that we crossed that reminded me of Playa de Maspalomas but in miniature. Quite odd.

We divers had to go into the water a few hours later: we took advantage of the fact that Ricardo and Ana (our wise marine scientist) had an interview with the press and the mayor of Arinaga to go for a lovely dive at a spot known as “El Cabrón”. Here the fish are very trusting and there is a group of grunt being stalked by fair-sized bicuda fish, although what struck me the most was the great abundance of photophilic algae that cover the rocks. I dove here years ago, and I remember that there much fewer algae and many more sea urchins. I suppose that that difference can be chalked up to the lime urchin eradication campaigns waged in recent years, but what is certain is that I got the feeling I was seeing “El Cabrón” as it must have been a long time ago, before the lime urchin overpopulated these waters.

There was still time for a ROV submersion at dusk off the coast of Arinaga: the good news is that as soon as we reached -500 m, a field of “Mexican sombrero” giant sponges (Asconema setubalense), some hake and some remains of Lophelia coral appeared that almost made the scientific staff hysterical with emotion (that’s how they get). The bad news was finding a huge industrial oil drum that some unscrupulous person decided to dump here to save himself the trip to a waste treatment plan. There is lots of junk here.

Bañaderos and La Catedral, Grand Canary. October 1, 2009.

José Peñalver, "Indi"
It has been a quiet night. The ship rocked along with the soft sway brought on by anchoring with just the right touch, and without the static and unreal calm of ports or the violent onslaught of the voyages on an angry sea.

Perhaps due to that calm, and the fact that the workday would be shorter, I woke up with the vitality I am not known for. I even seem to remember combing my hair.

The workday was going to be shorter because in the afternoon, there was going to be a new relief: sailors Toni Pérez and Mario Conde were going to be relieved by Nuño Ramos. Nuño had left the ship some weeks ago and was going to return to his duties as the Ranger’s captain (Carlos Pérez had skippered the ship up until then). Conchi de Pedro, who had already worked with Oceana a few years back also relieved them.

So there was no time to lose. We got up a little earlier than usual and headed toward Bahía Bañaderos, on Grand Canary, where we submerged the ROV at a depth of over 600 meters. We saw another kitefish shark (Dalatias licha) there. It is a deep-sea shark that does not usually measure more than a meter and a half. We had the chance to film one for the first time during the previous day’s submersion.

After the ROV submersion, it would be the divers’ turn. At a depth of 37 meters surrounding La Catedral, they were able to photograph and film, among other species, a magnificent stingray (Taeniura gravta) specimen.

We reached Las Palmas at about four p.m., and we fueled up before mooring. A huge backpack with Mario stuck in front of it came out of the ship on the way to the airport. Toni, who lives in Las Palmas, did not have a plane to miss, and his farewell was less stressful.

After Ricardo Aguilar and Ana Torriente visited the Canarian Institute of Marine Science where they interviewed José Antonio González with a PhD in Biological Science and Coordinator of the Fishing biology Group, the Ranger, with both Oceana scientists as the hosts, received the visit from the representatives of Foro Las Canteras, a Grand Canary citizen’s group that has spent years requesting that a marine reserve be created in the Playa de Las Canteras area. This area’s biodiversity is stunning beneath depths of just seven meters.

And at the end, something light for dinner. Lentils.

Sardina, Grand Canary, September 30, 2009.

Gorka Leclercq.

Today our wakeup call was at 4:00 a.m. We set sail from the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife at that ungodly hour in order to reach Sardina del Norte on the island of Gran Canaria early that morning.

With a calm sea, we covered the 40 miles in a little over four hours. We, the divers, made our first dive of the day in the port of Sardina.

A comfortable dive, no current, good visibility and an average depth of 12 meters. Under these conditions we had the longest dive of the campaign, exceeding 100 minutes under water. You can tell that it is a spot where many divers come. This is because the fish are very friendly and you can easily film and photograph them: barracudas (Sphyraena viridensis), haddock (Mycteroperca fusca), sea bass (Umbrina canariensis), octopi (Octopus vulgaris), mullet (Mullus surmulletus), a wide variety of sargo (Diplodus spp.), ocean catfish (Sparisoma cretense), great silver smelt (Pomatomus saltador), seabream (Pagrus auriga), garden eels (Heteronconger longissimus)… lined up in our sights this morning.

As soon as we got out of the water, we set our course 6 miles out to sea to submerge the ROV. We submerged to a depth of 500 meters in an area without currents. At 450 meters, a large squid lunged to devour the ballast, and a little while later, we were able to observe a specimen of a kitefish shark (Dalatias licha) and two hake (Merluccius merluccius). After three hours of diving, we returned to our course toward Sardina del Norte to dive again at Caleta with the hope of being able to document the devil rays that are usually observed in the area.

We reached the spot at dusk, supposedly the best time for spotting them, but as soon as we jumped in the water, we realized that we were not going to be lucky. This is because the water is quite churned up and visibility was reduced considerably if we compare it with the morning’s dive. So we chose to stay on a rocky bottom 20 meters down to be able to document the area.

After the submersion, we anchored at a nearby cove to spend the night and wake up early tomorrow morning for another ROV submersion before entering the port of Las Palmas. We will making a change of crew and continue the campaign toward Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.

Radazul, Tenerife, September 29, 2009. 
Ana de la Torriente
Alberto Brito boarded the Ranger first thing that morning. Alberto is a zoology and biological oceanography professor at Universidad de La Laguna. A large portion of his research has been focused on studying Canarian marine fauna. 7 Since the expedition began, Alberto got in touch with us and has been giving us his invaluable help to identify corals, gorgonians and fish. It has practically turned into a habit: after the submersions, Ricardo sends him a series of stills of species that both of them manage to identify.

Today we are lucky enough to have him aboard with us. According to how the voyage started off, we can already see that he is another major enthusiast of these topics. Seated in the living room, we spent hours looking at the images and shots from the ROV from previous submersions. I have the feeling that if it were up to him, we could spend hours and hours like that.

We submerged with the ROV in Radazul. Even though we found gorgonians (Letogorgia ruberrima), sea whips (Funiculina quadrangularis, Viminella flagellum), (Chlorophthalmus agassizi, Cyttopsis rosea, Chaunax xp., Acantholabrus pailloni, Anthias antias), and we even found a species that we had not documented until now (the little corals, Deltocyahtus sp.), it was not one of the best submersions. It's a shame that Alberto was not able to enjoy a better submersion live, but with the number of images from previous days he has seen, I am almost sure that he came away with a complete view of how we go about our work and the expedition.

When we came into port, to finish up the day, we had a visit from Pablo Martín Sosa, Sebastián Jimenez Navarro and Francisco Abascal on board. All three work at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO are the initials in Spanish). Pablo and Sebastián are the ones in charge of developing the INDEMARES project in the islands. We were showing them the work we do during the expedition discussing ROV methodology and use.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife, September 28, 2009.

Ana de la Torriente

As we had to make several crew member changes, we decided to stay in Tenerife. Fleta and Pisha were replaced by Pitu and Siscu and Carlos Suárez by Carlos Minguell.

In the afternoon, Ricardo and I met with the ASMESUB group (Underwater Environmental Association). This is an association that works to improve the situation of sea bottoms along the seacoast of the island of Tenerife. They mentioned the success that some of the actions they periodically perform yielded: the lime urchin (Diadema antillarum) eradication and crushing campaigns. We also discussed the work they do to encourage the creation of a marine reserve of fishing interest at Punta de Teno. We did 4 submersions with the ROV in this area at depths between 250 and 680 meters throughout the campaign. The area's high biodiversity clearly requires considering the creation of a reserve that also includes deeper parts.

Roques de Anaga, Tenerife, September 27, 2009.

Ana de la Torriente

The entire reserve of Roques de Anaga at the north end of the island of Tenerife is made up of two volcanic rock formations in the sea where there are singular animal and plant species. Besides being the place where the only known Gallot's lizard (Gallotia galloti insulanagae) population can be found, it is an important area for birds because 6 different species have been observed to nest there.

While the divers were diving in the area, Indi, Ricardo and Mónaco, spent their time birdwatching. They placed special interest in finding a Bulwer's petrel (Bulweria bulwerii) or a Madeira petrel (Oceanodroma castro), two species listed for the area. They were unsuccessful, but they were able to spot a peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) on the rocky wall.

As for underwater life, the divers were documenting an impressive rocky slope from 8 to 40 meters. They once again found a blanquizal (rocky bottom) on a pretty bed of basaltic rocks where the presence of red gorgonians (Leptogorgia ruberrima) and yellow gorgonians (Leptogorgia viminalis). These are two species that, in spite of being easy to find in the Canary Islands, we had barely documented them up until now.

In this same area, but farther away from the shore, we dove with the ROV for about 3 hours. Once again we documented small coral (Coenosmilia fecunda, Dendrophyllia cornigera), sea whips (Funiculina quadrangularis), gorgonians (Narella bellissima) and several different fish species (Setarches guenteri, Grammicolepis brachiusculus, Helicolenus dactylopterus, Aulopus filamentosus).

Punta del Viento, Tenerife, September 26, 2009.

Ana de la Torriente

Today is one of those days where it's almost better not to do anything at all. 

We have 5 hours of sailing until the next sampling point, Punta del Viento. Therefore, it was decided last night to anchor near los Cristianos to rest up a bit and weigh anchor at 1:00 a.m.

When we woke up in the morning, we were already at the dive site. First off, a dive with the divers. As they came back to the ship, they all said the same thing: "pretty scenery with vertical rocky drop-offs, but not much life. A genuine blanquizal (rocky bottom)".

Then a ROV submersion. A little after the submersion began, we came across some fishing buoys in our path that did not allow us to follow the desired course. To avoid any possibility of entangling the ROV in the ropes, we changed our course. Then it was the current that prevented us from continuing on our desired course, continuously taking us to greater depths. Finally, as we were unable to coordinate the ship and the ROV, we aborted our operations.

It was better to dock in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and try again tomorrow with better luck.

Punta Teno, Tenerife, September 25, 2009.

Er Pisha, ROV Pilot.

We set off at night where we were anchored near Los Gigantes, where some crew members were chatting at the CHILL OUT, which is nothing more than the RANGER'S bathtub.

We reached Tenerife in the morning, where we are going to submerge the R.O.V. first.

The goal for today, besides of course identifying "fish, sponges, coral...", is to reach the Devil's depth, 666 meters.

Of course we were also spotting birds so Indi could identify them. We began the submersion with something of a current on the surface, but it gradually went away. We turned on the R.O.V.'s lights at about 200 meters. It is incredible how clear the water is here. The R.O.V.'s sonar began to detect the bottom at 25 meters when the depth was still 635 meters. We began to have doubts that we could attain it, and when "CERVANTES", that's what we call the R.O.V., hit bottom, the depth gauge marked 665.9 meters. We scurried to gain a little more depth, but it seems the currents did not want us to reach the gates of "LUCIFER". However, after awhile we reached the desired depth of 666 meters.

After the photos de rigueur, we began the transect, and that is when we set the depth record with the R.O.V., for this and all Oceana campaigns: 677.5 meters.

Then it was the divers' turn at Punta Teno where they would film and photograph black coral, gerardia coral and a black stingray.

El Hierro, 24 September 2009.

Carlos Suárez

It's our last day in El Hierro. Today, we set sail from La Estaca port with Patricia Arranz, a biologist specialised in cetaceans who lives in the beautiful town of El Pinar. I had the pleasure of meeting Patricia a few years ago during one of my annual visits to this amazing island.

I know she is currently dedicated almost exclusively to observing beaked whales in collaboration with the University of La Laguna. Beaked whales are one of the least-known families of mammals and are quite allusive, but sightings are common in some parts of the islands. I asked her about her work as soon as I saw her and we chatted about our projects.

After sailing for a few miles, we reached the spot where we wanted to submerge "Cervantes," the ROV. We are in front of La Bonanza and begin to prepare for the dive. Patricia keenly observes everything we do and is surprised how each one of us knows exactly what to do at each moment. She asks about each operation and is interested in all the details. Later, she told us that one day, she hopes to see where the animals she is studying go in search of food and is very interested in learning how to use this technology for the future.

It is known that beaked whales began submerging themselves to great depths in search of food and this is a wonderful opportunity to see those ecosystems. Much of the information that Patricia and the University of La Laguna has about these animals is obtained through direct observation during sightings and with electronic monitoring systems. These systems allow individuals to be marked with a small black box that is later recovered when it falls off the animal. These black boxes register information including depth, temperature, sound, etc. Soon, tiny cameras will also probably be installed in these boxes, like the crittercam, in order to offer us images that have never been seen before.

After diving with the Cervantes, the divers will also dive, but in shallower waters. The spot is El Roque de Bonanza. This is a beautiful place where you can go down a vertical wall full of black coral and multicolour sponges. But the best part of the dive is swimming alongside the shadows of this beautiful natural basalt sculpture. I take advantage to take some pictures and return to the Ranger with only one thing on my mind: returning to El Hierro.

El Hierro. 23 September 2009.

Gorka Leclercq

We reached the island of El Hierro, coming from Mógan, south of Grand Canary. We had to stay two days at port for repairs on board and to recharge our batteries for this new phase of the campaign.

If the weather holds out, the idea is to go from west to east, on the north face of the archipelago's islands, the ones most exposed to wind and heavy seas.

So we set sail to El Hierro yesterday and it took us 15 hours to arrive. We are now facing Los Roques de Salmor, on the northwest coast of the island.

During the first dive with the ROV in front of Los Roques, we were surprised by the extensions of crinoids, dead man’s finger coral (Paralcyonium spinulosum) and cnidarians (Nemertesia ramosa), although we had documented these species during other dives, we had never seen them in such high concentrations.

After the ROV, the divers get into the water near Roque, on the southern face and as I am descending, I realise there is a vertical wall that plunges into the deep blue to great depths; I continue down to 35 meters and still can't see the bottom although visibility is almost 40 meters, because I can see the surface clearly from here; so I don't think of going any deeper and I concentrate on filming the wall covered in algae and sponges and other invertebrates. We finish diving and, as usual, we feel the urge to discover the other faces of Los Roques, but the campaign is planned so that not a minute is lost, and we head towards the next spot where the ROV will be submerged in the Bay of Las Calcosas, further north.

During the dive, we identify another sixgill shark (Hexanchus griseus) and observe a cnidarian (Anthomastus sp) that was not initially described in the campaign, although we have documented it four times during the expedition.

After we finish the dive with the ROV, we head towards the port of La Estaca, where we will spend our last night in El Hierro before we start heading east along the islands. Hopefully, the weather will hold out so we can work under good conditions.

On the way to El Hierro. Tuesday, 22 September 2009.

Ana de la Torriente

In the morning, the most urgent task was to repair the remote control that stopped working in the Sahara Mountains and build a new ballast. Mónaco called Michel, the technician who worked on French submarines and, after investigating the situation, he decided to install a second control via cable. Now we have two systems installed and this reassures us that we will be able to respond in case of breakdown.

Michel.....an exotic guy who tells us about his “nanny”, a six-foot Tuareg who only spoke when absolutely necessary. He also taught him that a well-timed slap on the neck wasn’t child-beating, but an effective learning tool. Like he says, he showed him to respect the important things in life.

In the afternoon, once all our problems are solved, we set sail to El Hierro.

Mogán, Grand Canary. Monday, 21 September 2009.

Ana de la Torriente

Day off.

Washing, shopping, hardware store (of course), search for a new ballast and how to repair the winch, and of course of few beers.

Taking advantage of the peace that reigns onboard, we invite Suso Trujillo Rodríguez, Councillor of the Environment in the City Hall of Agüimes . This local government has requested, through plenary agreement, the designation of a Marine Reserve in Arinaga three times (in 1996, 2000 and 2006).

We talked about the area and he gave us various copies of a book about the Arinaga Marine Reserve. We showed him our work and the discoveries we made during the expedition. All the information we are compiling will be very useful for him as councillor to achieve the official designation of the marine reserve.

On the way to Mógán, Grand Canary. Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September 2009.

Ana de la Torriente

Unfortunately, we weren't able to continue diving off the Sahara seamounts and we are now on our way to Grand Canary.

As we all know, the trip to Mogán will take two days, so we quickly man our stations. Like always, some disappear, others work on their videos and photographs and small groups gather both on deck and inside to share a cigarette or chat. Meanwhile, Indi and Ricardo, binoculars in hand, go on deck in search of birds and cetaceans.

We are very surprised by the lack of cetaceans. Not even one has been sighted. However, different species of birds keep them occupied, like red-billed tropicbirds (Phaethon aethereus), parasitic jaegers (Stercorarius parasiticus), sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) and and Bulwer’s petrels (Bulweria bulwerii). Indi teaches the rest of us, beginners in bird studies, about the subject. Today it was the red-billed tropicbird’s turn. As an adult, this bird has two extremely long central tail feathers (more than half the length of the bird’s body). It nests in Cape Verde, but it's not clear whether they nest in the Canary Islands and only vague references exist (like in the case of El Hierro).

We reach Mogán on the 20th, at mid-morning.

The Sahara Seamounts. Echo Seamount. Friday, 18 September 2009.

Gorka Leclercq

The sun comes up during my shift on the Ranger, on the east, and before the light begins to shine, Venus peeks out over the horizon, the morning star. I prepare the camera to film the daybreak despite the rocking seas, but the new day has a surprise in store for me; I see “horns” on the horizon: it’s the moon that apparently fell asleep and has to hurry so the sun doesn't catch up with it.

I have never seen a daybreak like this (I am usually fast asleep at this time of the day), and I don't know if it's because of our latitude or the phases of the moon, but the fact is that the two bodies are only separated by an hour and the sky looks like something out of a science fiction movie.

Ricardo Aguilar and Ana Torriente spent the night drinking coffee and working with “Olex” designing the bathymetry, so the ROV can be in the water at 9 am for the dives we’ve planned on the Echo seamount on the Sahara Bank.

We are about 200 miles south of the Canary Islands; according to the local charts, these mountains rise from a seabed over 3,000 meters deep, up to 150 meters. In any case, we haven’t found such superficial elevations during our dives and we are working at approximately 500 meters depth. The ROV takes almost 45 minutes to reach the seabed and show us the first inhabitants, a ray (Raja maderensis) and a large Atlantic wreckfish (Polyprion americanus) pose in front of the ROV’s camera.

The dive continues and the overcast sky becomes darker. It begins to rain unceasingly and we hurry to close the portholes so the electronic equipment doesn't get wet. But Murphy does it again: the remote control that operates the winch that hauls up the ROV doesn't seem to want to work when wet, so here we are, with the ROV "stuck" at almost 500 meters depth.

Carlos “Mc Gyver” Pérez concentrates on finding the cause of the problem but after more than two hours, he can’t find it. We decide to cut the cable and haul up the ROV manually.

This is when the odyssey begins for the ROV technicians. They must try to insert the ballast cable inside a blade of the ROV's arm that is only about five centimeters wide, to try to cut it; all of this with a weight of about 85 kgs “dancing around" underneath us at 500 meters depth. After more than one hour of jolts and lurches, including a collision between the ballast and the ROV, they were finally able to cut the cable and begin to recover the remaining cable and haul up the ROV.

Another hour and a half of working under intense rain (at least we are in the Sahara Bank) until everything is safely on board.

After this "adventure”, we study our options and decide to head towards Grand Canary Island to repair the winch, because we’ll find better infrastructures on this island to carry out the work.

We have more than 200 miles ahead of us until we reach port (as usual, the thing couldn’t break during another dive, when we are closer to the coast, it had to happen when we are as far away as possible during the expedition…), so we have some reading ahead of us and some movies on the computer to try to learn more about marine birds at the hands of our onboard expert José Peñalver (Indi), during the next two and a half days.

The Sahara Seamounts. Echo Seamount. Thursday, 17 September 2009.

Ana de la Torriente

We reached the Sahara Mountains around noon. Up to now, most of the people on board had disappeared. Some went off to read, or watch movies while others downloaded and classified their photographs or worked on video footage. Ricardo clung to the binoculars expecting to sight birds or cetaceans while Indi raced from the deck to the kitchen, identifying red-billed tropicbirds (Phaeton aethereus) while preparing lunch.

Surprisingly, no cetaceans were sighted. At least they sighted the tropicbird; it was amazing. They also confirmed that the most common species up to now around the islands, the Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris diomedea), was substituted by the greater shearwater (Puffinus gravis) as we reached the mountains.

At Echo seamount we dove with the rov. Lately, we are reaching record depths each time we submerge the rov. Today we went down as far as 593 meters. The numerous rocks on the muddy seabed make for a spectacular irregular substrate on and under which many organisms fix themselves or hide. We identified various sixgill sharks (Hexanchus griseus), abundant morid cods (Laemonema yarrellii) hidden between the rocks and a black coral (Bathypathes sp) uncommon in the Canary Islands that we already identified in the La Palma Marine Reserve in front of Pta. del Mudo, as well as on the island of La Palma or in front of Pta. del Peligo in La Gomera.

And last, we also identified a beautiful sponge that Ricardo baptized “moose horn” because of its shape.

This sponge creates structures similar to small reefs that harbour many small species.

Hierro and mountains of the Sahara, september 16, 2009.

Jose Peñalver, Indi.

This morning we set sail from La Restinga on the island of El Hierro, quite a bit later than the time we usually do when we leave the harbor. The reason for this was that we had to refuel both the Ranger’s tanks and the 20 liter canisters used to supply the ROV’s generators and the oceanographic winch.

For those who don’t know, La Restinga is a small group of houses arranged in a grid with a density of scuba diving centers per inhabitant not easily surpassed elsewhere. For those who know as well.

Filling the ship’s tanks with diesel was relatively easy; filling the canisters with gasoline is another story. Together with Carlos Suárez in an old van belonging to a friend of his that threatened to throw us out on any curve, I traveled around fifteen tortuous kilometers to reach the El Pinar service station. El Pinar is a settlement where there are no scuba diving centers or a single street that is not dishearteningly steep.

After loading the canisters, leaving the service station, doing away with curves as if they had not come out right on the trip to El Pinar, and observing how Carlos stepped on the brake pedal as if it were Led Zeppelin’s drum set, we reached La Restinga again. Here, we made one dive before heading to Banco Echo.

Banco Echo ─previously known as Banco Endeavour─ is located some 160 miles to the south of the Canarian archipelago. It is part of a group of underwater mountains known as Mountains of the Sahara, and it reaches, at its highest point, some 150 meters above the surface. We are approaching a place that is basically unexplored, mile by mile, with the enthusiasm that doing pioneer work brings about.

To start off, and by way of an appetizer, a group of some six or eight Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) appeared at the ship’s bow for a good while. A little later ─exactly when they felt like it,─ they said “Hey! We’re going to split.”, and they went away with a fresh wind out of the Northeast.

Early tomorrow morning, after I prepare breakfast, I plan on hanging the binoculars around my neck and not stopping until I find an interesting bird. Rescuing the comb and shampoo can wait.

El Hierro. Tuesday, september 15, 2009.

Carlos Pérez

Today we awoke off of “La Restinga” at the extreme south of Hierro Island. As soon as we arrived, we concentrated on performing the first bathymetry to locate the spots where Ricardo wanted the ROV submersion. After locating them, I left the ship to Pairo to study the abatement and decide which will be the best strategy of the transect that interest the campaigns.

Today’s ROV submersion has been the most interesting one from the Ranger control standpoint. The changing wind and current conditions have forced us to use four different maneuvering procedures to take the craft to the depths where the study was carried out. I had a good time because things were varied but not as screwed up as they sometimes are where “there’s no way”. As on all southern capes of the islands, the winds pick up, and maneuvering becomes, at the very least, complicated. But today we’re coming back to port with a feeling of a mission accomplished. It seems untrue, but 500 meters sounds like a normal working depth to us now. The Ranger is “a machine”, the ROV is coming along fine, and the people are tireless.

In the afternoon, once we were tied up at La Restinga, we prepared for a dive from the harbor with the skiff, as the spot is “a stone’s throw from the deck”.

Invading Goths, Guanches without a federation, Iberians who want to be from elsewhere, descendents of Berbers with “tied up” RH, Americans with Lapp origins or somewhere around there, and the Frenchman on duty who could not fail to appear, we finished the day at the pueblitosub in bars and tasting tapas at Saharan latitudes as if it were the norm... well just that, Ranger expedition “yes we can”.

La Palma. Monday, september 14, 2009.

Eduardo Sorensen

Today we had the chance to dive within the La Palma Marine Reserve. After processing the relevant permits, we obtained authorization to dive. Once there, the first thing we did was contact Tamia Brito, the marine reserve’s technician and coordinator. While we divers were diving between Punta del Hombre and Punta Resbaladera, Tamia was aboard the Ranger, learning about our work and giving us advice on the best spots within the reserve and the differences between them.

The conditions were ideal: calm sea and sun. As soon as we started diving, we were able to observe very good visibility. We began at a depth of 10 meters where we could already see ocean catfish, moray eels and trumpetfish. The volcanic rock on the bottom forms very irregular structures such as caverns, passageways, rocky tongues, etc... that invite us to descend and see what lies beyond. The spot’s good visibility shows us how the underwater passage dramatically changes at around 30 meters. At this depth, the species that accompany us are mainly gray triggerfish, blue roosterfish, grunt bream, horse mackerel, and far away and even deeper, a group of amberfish.

Once again we confirmed the benefits of creating protected areas or reserves. As soon as you submerge into the reserve, a healthy ecosystem becomes evident, and this is reflected in, among other details, the trusting attitude of the fish toward the divers.

La Palma. Sunday, september 13, 2009.

Gorka Leclercq

Today we set sail at dawn from the port of Santa Cruz de La Palma toward the southern part of the island. Today’s plan is to do two dives with divers and one with the ROV off the Fuencaliente lighthouse.

We sailed with a fresh wind from the stern; when we rounded the cape, we were sheltered by Fuencaliente’s point. We did the first submersion at Torre de Malpique, a pinnacle that rises from a depth of between fifty and twenty-three meters, and it is covered almost completely by black coral (Antipathella wollastoni). We only had a few minutes to document the place due to the depth. Despite not carrying the proper lens, there is very good visibility and we have the sun at our back, so I took this opportunity to take several general shots of the tower before approaching to film the coral. The scuba computers began warning us of the depth we were at, and we began our ascent to more shallow depths.

On a sandy bottom, I can make out the triangular silhouette that is characteristic of a spiny butterfly ray (Gymnura altavela), majestically lifts off upon noticing our presence. I tried to follow it in vain, though I managed to take a “decent” shot of it. Almost at the end of the dive, we had the possibility of filming several common seabream (Pagrus pagrus) and a fangtooth moray (Enchelycore anatina).

On the way back to the ship, it’s the “ROVers’” turn. They began the submersion very near where we had dove, but at a depth of 500 meters. However, they had to abort their submersion due to a strong current that made it impossible to control the ROV. So we divers geared up for a new dive in the same place.

This time, I attached the wide-angle lens, but when I got in the water, I realized that the conditions had changed completely, and visibility had dwindled considerably. In spite of this, we went back down to the tower to take some shots, without achieving the result that I would have liked. So I had to settle for filming several trumpetfish (Aulostomus strigosus) in a new cave we found when we returned to the ship.

Now on our way back, we once again steered our course toward the port of Santa Cruz de la Palma where we will spend the last night on La Palma, to later sail toward the island of El Hierro, the prime meridian island.

La Palma. Saturday, september 12, 2009.

Carlos Suárez

Today is a special day aboard the Ranger. It is our first contact with La Palma and we also have guests. We have been paid a visit by Marta Madina, communications director for Oceana Europe and Carlos, a journalist for XL Semanal magazine who will write an article about the campaign. We received our guests, and after the introductions de rigueur in a cordial setting, we steered our course toward Punta Cumplida.

Today’s dives will be made with just the ROV, and the routine is always the same. The remote vehicle operators will perform a series of checks to prevent failures and malfunctioning. A hypothetical failure at depths of over 500 meters could hamper the vessel with a snag on the steep underwater walls. Everyone is amazed when they gaze at the depths it reaches so close to shore. Nothing like other places where we have held campaigns in years past. The Canary Islands have a narrow shelf, and you can especially notice this on La Palma.

The sea became a bit rougher and the wind made it difficult to control the ship and the ROV in turn. Everything has its own routine pace, and submersion time rolls around. Ana de la Torriente and Ricardo Aguilar are really enjoying themselves. The highlight of the day was when we spotted a black coral (Bathypathes sp.) next to an alcyonacean coral (Anthomastus sp.) on the rocky bottom. I take great pleasure in seeing them so excited about this identification of two undescribed species for the Canarian archipelago.

On the way back to the marina in Santa Cruz de la Palma to spend the night, I watch our guests’ faces, and they reflect the tiredness of so many hours on the sea. A workday can be exhausting on a ship, and we make good use of time on the Ranger.

Today its our turn to eat out, and tomorrow will be a double submersion day for the divers. Although I was tempted to stay up past my bedtime, I decided to go to bed early to be fresh for the following day. Diving is my passion, but I am aware that the sea’s changing conditions may turn the simplest of dives into a dangerous situation. It is better to rest because on a ship, you never know when you’ll have the chance.

Los Órganos, La Gomera. Friday, september 11, 2009.

Ana de la Torriente

We took advantage of the calm to document the sea bottom off the Northern end of la Gomera. The days continue to be sunny, and the little wind blowing makes the heat inside the Ranger too intense at times. It is a good day to go outside during the crossing to the sampling stations and enjoy the coastal scenery. We sailed parallel to some gorgeous cliffs until we reached los Órganos, an impressive geological structure formed by basaltic columns with a shape similar to organ pipes; hence its name.

The divers dove along the coastal area, near los Órganos. Initially, we planned to dive right beneath los Órganos and document this underwater geological structure. However, the strong swell made us abandon this first idea. In the surrounding area, the animal life that the divers found was much less than they had expected. They returned to the ship describing the area as an authentic blanquizal (rocky bottom) with lime urchins (Diadema antillarum), some seaweed and a narrow diversity of organisms.

We submerged with the ROV somewhat removed from the coast, off of Punta Peligro. It is amazing to see how everyone gradually picks up practice and a great deal of technique in the ROV submersions. So much so that they make all of it look so easy: steering the ROV, coordinating the ROV with the ship, and the arduous chore of controlling the umbilical cable and the winch. And so today we have gone farther out on a limb and we made a new depth record in the Canary Islands. We reached up to 558 meters.

During the submersion, the most awe-inspiring sight was the vast field of glass sponges (Asconema setubalense) we came across. We were surprised the first time we found this species in Estrecho de la Bocayna; a species that has not been described in the waters of this archipelago. However, in this case, the most notable fact was the length of the area they occupied, thus creating a whole habitat that without a doubt will be fundamental for many other species.

La Gomera. Thursday 10 september 2009

Thierry Lannoy

We set sail this morning from the port of San Sebastian in La Gomera to work around the island.

We, the divers, will remember this port because of what we saw yesterday, and saw again today. At the end of the dive we started to come up to the surface when we saw a loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) at 10 meters depth… the turtle reacted immediately: as soon as it saw us, it came swimming at full speed ahead, straight towards us. It got so close to the cameras that we had no choice but to escape!! I think it would have been great to see the Oceana divers chased by a hungry turtle!! This lasted a few minutes and we were able to document this animal’s peculiar behavior. Later, we were told that local divers feed this turtle regularly and the animal now associates divers with food… This reminds us that modifying the habits of wild animals is wrong: it distorts their behavior and gives the wrong impression of their true nature.

We sailed to the next dive site to work with the ROV and we passed closed to the coast of La Gomera Island. The cliffs and mountains offered an impressive site, with the towns hanging on the mountains along the coast.

After the dive with the ROV, we returned to port at the island of La Gomera.

While we worked with the ROV, a Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) approached us.

La Gomera. Wednesday 9 september 2009

Ana de la Torriente

This time, we submerged the ROV in Punta del Jurado, north of La Gomera. We were surprised to find so many shortnose greeneye (Chlorophthalmus agassizi) atop the muddy seabed, all looking in the direction from which the current was coming. We have documented this species in the Mediterranean in the past, but always individuals alone, never in such large groups.

The great discovery of the day, however, was the large amount of fan coral (Flabellum chunii) we found on the muddy-sandy seabed. To date, this species has only been documented in Grand Canary. In the past, we’ve only been able to take a few samples, so we assumed this species was not abundant in the archipelago. The work we are carrying out with the Rov is providing new scientific information that will expand the knowledge of the distribution of this species in the Canary Islands.

It was also a good day as far as sharks are concerned. During the dive with the rov a tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus) crossed our path and just before the divers got into the water, in front of Punta San Cristobal, we saw a hammerhead shark (Sphyrna sp) swimming on the surface.

Before returning to port, the divers dove at Playa de la Cueva, near Punta San Cristobal. The star of this dive was a loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) that appears there every afternoon, and has been doing so for 6 or 7 years. Rumor has it the turtle lived in a recuperation center for marine species and that is why it returns to this area.

La Gomera. Tuesday, 8 september 2009

Gorka Leclercq

The sky is blue, there is a wonderful shining sun, newly fallen powdered snow, and the entire slope untrodden, all for me. I grip the poles and lunge downhill. I fall into the snow up to my knees and when I take my first turn, a thought goes through my head: Damn, what time must it be that I’m having such a good time?

I stand up suddenly, so quickly that I bump my head on the corner of a cabinet that is at the upper part of my bunk. What time is it?

I started my watch at six o’clock a.m., I grope for the clock, three fifteen...son of a gun...

How I envy Carlos Pérez who is capable of getting his six hours of sleep in the intervals he needs: two hours, one hour, half an hour, fifteen minutes... and he always seems fresh and raring to go. If I, on the other hand, wake up, I can’t get back to sleep even if you shoot me, so I do some pending video editing work, under an almost full moon, sheltered by the cliffs of Los Gigantes to the south of Tenerife. What happens is that in that special ambience, I become concentrated right away, and before I know it, it’s six o’clock a.m. It’s a matter of setting up a recording studio around here...

I go up on deck and I replace Carlos Suárez, the Ranger’s photographer during the next month. He was on the watch before me. We are anchored near the port of Los Gigantes where there was no place to dock, so we have found shelter among these spectacular cliffs that reach Punta de Teno in the South of this “chicharrera” island, Tenerife. When we are not in port, we have night watches to prevent any change in the wind or other contingencies that place the Ranger’s safety at risk.

Activity on board began at seven thirty, and after breakfast, we set sail for the island of La Gomera as there is a forecast of calm seas for the next few days, and we want to make the best of the good weather to do submersions on the one of the islands’ most exposed sides.

We steered our course to punta de la nariz (tip of the nose) (it’s no joke, that’s what the cape is called) to the SW of the island of Gomera, some 25 miles that we covered in four hours of pleasant sailing with hardly a wave. In the distance we spotted a whale… possible a Bryde´s whale that dove and left us wishing we had filmed it. The channel that separates the islands of Tenerife and La Gomera is one of the most important places in the islands for whale sighting, one of my passions. However, this time we had a different objective in sight, so it will have to wait for next time.

We reached punta de la nariz, and once there, it was time for the divers’ first dive. We did it at the point itself, on a rocky bottom that drops fro the surface to 35 meters with the first platform at 20 meters. I descended to the bottom and was able to observe the Ranger’s hull on the surface. Talk about visibility! At this depth (35 meters), and in spite of the fact that there is a small thermocline, the water temperature must be around 24º C.

I pulled away a bit from the rocks and dove along the sandy bottom amid a “field” of garden eels (Heteroconger longissimus) in case there were some animal life on this sandy bottom. I saw nothing appealing to me. I started my ascent, and I heard someone call me behind me. It’s my safety diver, Eduardo Sorensen, who let me know that in the blue ocean there was a school of about fifty tuna, probably sawfish (Sarda sarda). I can “steal a shot of them” even when they are far away.

We continued to ascend on a typical rocky Canarian bottom that is called “blanquizal” on the islands. These bottoms were formed due to the proliferation of lime urchins (Diadema antillarum). We are talking about a very voracious herbivore here that literally “razes” the algae cover on this type of bottom, leaving them completely “bare”. Overfishing of its main predators such as dentex (Pagrus auriga), sargo (Diplodus sp), barred hogfish (Bodianus scrofa) and porcupine fish (Chilomycterus atringa) has turned this species into a pest in practically the entire archipelago.

We finished the submersion near the surface and Carlos Suárez told me to look under a crack with a “sly” smile... I put the macro lens on my camera hoping to find a small prawn or sea slug, and surprise! I stumble upon a porcupine fish (Chilomycterus atringa) almost half a meter long snugly resting in the crack and looking uneasily at this new species of “fish” with lights that are rarely seen in these parts.

Once the submersion was over, we got back on board to steer our course toward a new ROV dive that will be performed near this point, but at a much greater depth.

Tenerife. Monday 7 september, 2009

Nuño Ramos

"Ricardo... Where are we going today?”

A question I regularly ask the scientific guru we carry aboard at about 8 each morning. The engines purr as they warm up while the coffee is steaming in our cups so we can take in that heat that puts us in gear. Indi, the cook, hunched down below the engine controls is still in his dreamy limbo waiting for his last little sip in order to enter this world...

“Let’s see how things are at Punta Teno. Let’s see if things are going well. Because they’re going well... Aren’t they?” answers Ricardo. I strike the pose of an experienced mariner, and looking toward the horizon with my eyes half-closed, I whisper: “Well, I’m not going to tell you what I think because I’d be lying to you”. That was the Galician streak in me. We finally decided we would have to stick our noses out to see what was going one out there on the outskirts of the cape.

Done. We stuck our noses out an hour later: SPLAT! Take that. There they are again, yes indeed. The everlasting trade winds. Those that, like Peter and the Wolf, they have been announcing for two weeks, and they die down in two days. They blow pretty hard, which is why we chose to hide our noses and leave so we could submerge the ROV elsewhere.

We located an interesting point in a quiet place and we lowered the ROV. There is a significant current, and a little while later, the wind and waves arrived, jolly and curious to see what we had up our sleeves. Anyway, some go this way, others go that way and we are determined to follow our own course with a creature dangling from a 500 m umbilical cable. I can’t help remembering my classes at school about n-dimensional vector spaces. Now I understand what that knowledge is good for: All I have to do is make ‘n=3’!

Our effort paid off: thick gardens of gorgonians, vast fields of sponges and hard coral galore awaited our return to thoroughly study it all in better conditions.

Tenerife. Sunday, 6 september 2009

Carlos Pérez

Today we set sail from the Puerto Amarillo Marina. We got up at the crack of dawn to arrive early at the ROV inspection and diving spots near the “Los Gigantes” area. The weather seems to be calming down, and the winds are quite tolerable on this Eastern-Southern-Western face of Tenerife. Today the gear was about to give us trouble, and we had to change a main diving compressor pressure gauge, thus putting off the morning dive to the afternoon. We also had to hoist the ROV back on board after having placed it in the water. On board, all the tests were correct. In the water, the tilt does not work properly. We had to bring the ROV back on board and go over everything. Finally the ROV was put back in the water and submerged to about 450 meters. The current was a bit difficult, and made us snag the ballast in the rocks a few times. The ROV approached the spot and examined the snag. It directed the operation and we freed the ballast both times. Diving in the afternoon. At the end of the dive, we went beneath the cliffs where we found a farm of gilthead bream and dolphins wandering amid the caged fish. After documenting everything, we anchored under the rocks towering hundreds of meters above us, and we spent the night with anchorage watches and a sea that was quite calm.

Grand Canary. Friday 4 september 2009

Ana de la Torriente

Last night we set sail from Grand Canary toward Tenerife. The wind among the islands, picking up speed to give us a delightful night of rolling about. From the NE, force 6, and accompanied by a cross sea. I imagine that this time, it wasn’t the soundtrack that hit Indi during the entire voyage.

The crew alternated to stand watch and reach the south of Tenerife where we made a submersion with the ROV; specifically off Punta Rasca. The dive was at Las Galletas.

Off of Los Cristianos, about 2 nautical miles from the shore, we approached so we could document pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus). This species may be sighted on different islands, but right in the coastal waters to the SW of Tenerife, there is a stable population where up to 340 resident individuals have been identified besides other passers-by.

When we finished, we set sail for the San Miguel marina where we will stay tomorrow, which will be a day off.

Grand Canary. Thursday 3 september 2009

Ana de la Torriente

We are still in the southern islands. Today, we worked in front of Mogan again, protected from the trade winds.

Pitu had an intense day today piloting the rov; we did three dives south of Grand Canary. We went down to 540 meters for the first time!!

We had a few surprises. For starters, while the rov was descending to approximately 410 meters, a thresher shark (Alopias superciliosus) passed by us, directly in front of the camera. And as soon as we reached 540 meters…we were very surprised by the communities we identified. There were abundant sponges in a variety of colours on the rocky seabed, especially sponges in the shape of chupa-chups lollipops. Oceana had already documented similar sponges in the Alboran Sea and in the deep waters of Galicia, possibly from the Stylocordila genus. But in this case, white lollipops were blended with blue ones, and we have yet to identify this species. It is surprising to see these colours at such depths.

And the last surprise was a solitary Venus flytrap anemone (Actinoscyphia aurelia) on the muddy seabed, which bears the name of the carnivorous plant it resembles. It looks like Ricardo made some kind of deal with the archipelago’s communities. Most mornings, he would wake up and say something like, “and today, it would be perfect if we found a…” and then... He would say a long name in Latin!! That’s how our day started: we wanted find a Venus flytrap anemone.

Cristina Fernández from the Oceanographic was with us. For years, she has been working on issues concerning conservation, science and the dissemination of information throughout the islands. She’s a diver, so she knows these areas quite well. But, looking at the screen, she couldn’t hide her surprise as the rov descended to 500 meters right before her very eyes. She no longer has to imagine the scenery.

Arguineguin, Southern Grand Canary. Wednesday, september 2, 2009

José Peñalver - "Indi"

Seven twenty-five a.m. I know this because the daily alarm on my cell phone started to spit out the tune from the soundtrack of the movie The Sting, perhaps attempting to sting me to my feet. But even that didn’t work. Sometimes the ship jostles you until you get up. The bad part is that it usually does it from the time you go to bed the night before. I clumsily pressed the “5 minute snooze” key, trying to get my brain to go back to the off position as quickly as possible, thus chiseling another chunk out of the night.

Seven thirty a.m. Same story. Several times. Until I can’t hold it off any longer and I dreadfully drag myself into the kitchen to load the coffee pots, heat up the milk, squeeze juice, honey, pastries... Well, I guess that that’s what I do until I have a cup of very strong coffee, I smoke a cigarette, and then I’m really awake. Good morning.

Today I’m going to prepare something simple: hamburgers (Bos taurus domesticus) with french fries (Solanum tuberosum). These species are usually found at depths from between 20 and 30 centimeters inside the cooler. As you can imagine, it’s a protected area.

After breakfast begins the hectic daily activity. It’s a really interesting and absolutely coherent job. Although sometimes, seen from the outside, it is not different from any scene from a Marx Brothers movie: Siscu shouts "ballast five up" while Charlie answers back "ballast five up". The sailors and divers wield a sort of yellow hose like a small squadron of lazy firemen while Pitu and Nuño talk about courses, drift, currents and that “you’re leaning hard on me, over”. A cacophony, presumably orchestrated, as Riki and Ana’s eyes widen while they are speaking in Latin. Gorka and Carlos Minguell document it all just so you don’t think I’m making it up.

Twelve thirty p.m. I’ve got to start fixing lunch.

As I select the ingredients, I wash them, cut them up (I know, I know, today they’re hamburgers and they don’t give me much work). I put the clean pots away in the cabinets, I wash the dishes or prepare a mid-morning snack. I like to think about the small pleasures that may await me at the end of the day such as a nice hot shower when we dock: that big, dark room where you can see the latest movies while you eat popcorn... Or was that the movie theater? Anyway...

One o’clock p.m. I’ve got to start fixing lunch.

But today I feel like writing. Come here. As I usually do when I ship out, I have brought my binoculars and four field guides on birds. The bird sightings have been really poor: shearwaters, seagulls and a little more than that. This means that my ornithologist’s gear is being given the same use as shampoo or a comb. Better luck tomorrow.

I’ve got to make lunch now.

Mogán, Grand Canary, Tuesday, september 1, 2009

Gorka Leclercq

Today is September 1st, the return to the “daily grind” for many of you, so set aside that backlog of work for a moment. My proposition to you is to disconnect from it all for a few minutes and read the ship’s log.

Yesterday evening we set sail from Punta de Jandía, at the Southern end of Fuerteventura toward Mogán, at the Southern end of Grand Canary: almost seventy miles of sailing we planned on covering in about eleven hours. However, when we entered the channel between the two islands, our friend “Ali” (short for Alisio or trade winds in English) felt like partying and had us dancing to the tune of Isas, Folías and Malagueñas all night long.

I watched a “flick” on the laptop on my bunk (I am the only lucky soul on the Ranger with a bunk bed all to myself. I use it to stow all the stuff that goes along with on board filming. We’ll talk about that and my tribulations at the airports to check in the nearly 100 kilos of gear I carry with me some other day...).

Once the laptop was fastened to the bunk so it wouldn’t fall off, and once I was in a similar position on the opposite side, I watched “Man on Fire” starring Denzel Washington with Tony Scott’s typical hallmark of frantic producing.

Now what I wanted to get to: once the movie was over, after two and a half hours in a pose that was half “Pilates” and half “Kama Sutra” on the bunk, instead of being sleepy, I was wide awake. So I went up on deck to keep “Jus” company. He is one of the pillars of the Ranger’s crew. Together with Mario, the other sailor, they stood guard for three hours while the ship sailed at night after more than eight hours of ROV submersion. During that submersion, both of them stayed on deck controlling the umbilical cable so there would be no “mishap” during the submersion.

As I was telling you, I was with Justino for a few hours on guard between cups of hot chocolate, cookies and the Canarian dances with “Ali” who still felt like partying.

The good part is that with the genova unfurled, we were doing more than nine knots, so we finally covered the distance in eight hours.

The next morning there were sleepy faces at breakfast, and everyone was in his or her spot for a new ROV submersion four miles to the South of Mogán.

The submersion began, and a little after it reached the bottom, Pitu and Siscu, the ROV navigators hit their target and show us, beneath a small reef at a depth of 270 meters, the first Darwin's slimehead (Gephyroberyx darwini) and Mediterranean slimehead fish (Hoplostethus mediterraneus). After the submersion and sailing for awhile by the imposing cliffs of Güi Güi, we docked in the port of Mogán where we were due for general provisioning and a nice hot shower after dinner.

We received a visit aboard the ship from Arturo Boyra and Cristina Fernández, two good friends who, like us, are passionate about the sea. Stemming from this is Oceanográfica, a company whose business is to spread awareness of the Canarian marine environment and publish authors of numerous publications. They have been running it for seven years. Some of these publications are guides which we turned to on the ship for answers to our queries. Tomorrow, Arturo will sail with us to see a ROV submersion onsite. With luck, we will find some “odd creature” for them to include in their next book.

Punta de Jandía, Fuerteventura. Monday, august 31, 2009

Gorka Leclercq

Today, Ana de la Torriente, the Ranger’s biologist, asked me to write the onboard log because we have her tied down between campaign reports, ROV submersion logs, identifying species and more documentation topics that keep her glued to the computer morning, noon and night.

This morning, I got up bright and early with the best alarm clock on the market (the seagulls in the harbor). At seven o’clock a.m. I was filming the Ranger docked in Morro Jable harbor at dawn. The truth is, I love those first few hours of the day in the different ports, almost void of people, and only a few fishermen repairing their nets or going out to fish. You hardly hear any noise, and the soft breeze that blows at that hour of the morning makes me concentrate on my camera, and it is when I usually get the best footage.

On the way back to the Ranger to drink the much needed cup of coffee that wakes us up so we can start the day, I found the crew stretching, and the odd brave member like Carlos Minguell shaving on deck with a brush and water in a bucket as if, after one month into the campaign, he were an old sea dog.

We sailed toward Punta de Jandía to make the first submersion with the ROV less than one mile from the coast. The crew is getting used to these sheer drops at the islands’ sea bottom. In previous campaigns, the ROV’s underwater investigations took place in the Mediterranean Sea and Bay of Biscay, and to reach the bottom, we had to sail for several miles until we reached the platform’s limit. Here in the Canary Islands, we practically submerge the ROV outside the harbor...

Three hours of submersion, a maximum depth of over 300 meters and sea bottoms characterized by coral (Stichopathes sp, Dendrophyllia ramea and Dendrophyllia conigera), and a wide variety of fishes: swallowtail sea perch (Anthias anthias), parrot sea perch (Callanthias ruber), bogue (Boops boops) and sparids like the red-banded sea bream (Pagrus auriga) or the pink dentex (Dentex gibosus) displayed on both of the ROV’s cameras on sandy bottoms with rocky concentrations. This is where we came upon most of the marine wildlife.

Back on the surface, the crew recovered the ROV with skill in spite of the force 5 winds that blew out of the NE. The first few days, we noticed certain tension on deck when it came time to lower and retrieve the ROV, but in a few days, the crew picked up the trick of working when there is “fumeque”, the name for the fresh wind here in the islands.

After the dive, the most important person on board, the cook, in our case,

“Indi”, already dubbed Ferrán Adriá de la Macaronesia, works again. In spite of the scurrying, he prepared a mixture of mushrooms and some asparagus that “flies out” of the stew. After the proper buffeting to prey on the last remains of the “champis” (mushrooms), some coffee, and we set out for the second ROV point of the day.

We attempted it to the SW of the lighthouse, but the wind picked up. Due to this fact, combined with the condition the seas were in, Ricardo Aguilar decided to change the point and choose one closer to Morro Jable. There, we will be sheltered from the trade wind that prevails in the eastern islands during these days.

After three hours of submersion, and having observed several different species such as white octopus (Eledore cirrosa), amberfish (Seriola sp), an angelfish (Squatina squatina) and different corals and sponges that would have to be identified more patiently later on, we headed toward the south of Grand Canary to the port of Mogán. If all goes well, we will spend the night sailing and we will be there tomorrow morning.

During the voyage, we also made use of the time to catch up on all the minutes and different documentation jobs we have no time to do when we are “on duty”.

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Indiiiiiiiiii!!!!!! What’s for dinneeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrr??????

Gran Tarajal, Fuerteventura. Sunday, August 30, 2009

Carlos Minguell

This morning, the ROV has shown us some abrupt submerged ravines below 300 m off of Punta del Morrete in southeastern Fuerteventura. Despite the persistent trade wind and the swell it entails, the submersion was done accurately, and we traveled a wide area where we once again saw sessile fauna that is typical of this sea bottom. This time we saw a greater abundance of fishes: carangid, dentex and even an anglerfish. In the afternoon, the Ranger reached Morro Jable, a tourist enclave, and here the divers visited a dive known as “El Veril”, a slope near the beach that descends from 15 to almost 40 m.

In this place, there is an unusual abundance of grouper, haddock, moray eel and other marketable species that also exhibit a trusting behavior toward the divers. This is an effect that we have seen other times in areas where there is large scale recreational scuba diving. On one hand, they are places where fish are abundant due to a lower fishing pressure, but at the same time they adopt an unnatural attitude toward divers. This is because divers usually feed them.

Isla de Lobos, Fuerteventura. Saturday, August 29, 2009

Ana de la Torriente

Today at 9 a.m. we were already at the sampling site. Since yesterday’s submersion was so appealing, we returned to the same spot, to the SE of Isla de Lobos.

In general, considering the different dives we have already done off the eastern coasts, we have seen a pattern that more or less repeats itself:

In the deepest area, between 350 and 200 meters, on a muddy bottom we found black coral (Antipathes dichotoma, Leiopathes glaberrima, Parantipathes larix, Stichopathes sp.), crystal sponges and some offshore rockfish (Pontinus kuhlii) and Cuvier's berycid fish (Beryx decadactylus).

After that, and up to depths of 90-100 meters, some rocks and stone slabs like an oasis appeared on the muddy bottom where a large wealth of species is concentrated. The rocks are colonized by numerous small coral (Coenosmilia fecunda), sea fans (Elisella parapleuxauroides) and black coral (Stichopathes sp.). On the rocks, there was a mix of swallowtail sea perch (Anthias anthias), parrot sea perch (Callanthias ruber) and blacktail comber (Serranus atricauda).

Below 80 meters, we saw vast fields of garden eels (Heteroconger longissimus). In this area, the parrot sea perch disappeared, whereas the swallowtail sea perch and the blacktail comber remained. These fish mingled with bogue (Boops boops), barred hogfish (Bodianus scrofa) and stingray (Dasyatis pastinaca). At this depth, the black coral that cover small, dispersed rocks give way to a different species, Antipathella wollastoni.

Estrecho de la Bocayna (La Bocayna Strait). Friday, August 28, 2009

Ana de la Torriente

We were not as lucky today with the ROV submersions. The first thing today we tried taking a sampling in the SW area of Estrecho la Bocayna in an area where the slope descends rapidly from 100 m to 600 m in only half a mile. When we reached the spot, a NE wind was blowing at force 4, so we decided it would be better to move to another spot. We already have experience where these conditions greatly hamper the coordination between the ROV and the ship.

The second attempt was in a more sheltered area to the SE of Isla Lobos (NE of Fuerteventura). This island owes its name to the fact that it used to have the largest colony of monk seals (Monachus monachus) on the Canary Islands which the locals called lobos (wolves). It was one of the places within their sphere of distribution they disappeared from, mainly due to hunting them for their skin, fat and meat.

After dive the ROV to just 400 meters, we found a species of black coral that we had not found up to then, Paranthipates larix. But unfortunately, a few minutes before starting to submerge the ROV, it became blocked, and we had to abort the dive.

Since we were not having very much luck with the robot, we dove to the south of the island, and the divers dove in an area known locally as the river depths. This bottom is known for some mushroom-shaped geological formations where there is a large number of different species of fish such as damselfish (Chromis limbata) and Canary damsel (Abudefduf luridus), cardinal fish (Apogon imberbis), yellowmouth barracuda (Sphyraena viridensis), horse mackerel (Pseudocaranx dentex), amberfish (Seriola rivoliana), striped seabream (Lithognathus mormyrus), two-banded bream (Diplodus vulgaris) and zebra seabream (D. cervinus), saddle bream (Oblada melanura), salema (Sarpa salpa), dusky grouper (Epinephelus marginatus), painted comber (Serranus scriba), ornate wrasse (Thalassoma pavo), planehead fish (Stephanolepis hispidus) and catalufa (Heteropriacanthus cruentatus).

Estrecho de la Bocayna (La Bocayna Strait). Thursday August 27, 2009

Ana de la Torriente

Last night we changed ports. We were docked at Marina Rubicón to the south of Lanzarote. We set sail from this port to continue with the task of documenting and identifying the sea bottom of Estrecho de la Bocayna.

For the moment, the weather conditions favor us, and we can continue diving, both with the ROV and divers, to the south of Lanzarote. The southern part of the archipelago is more protected from the trade winds that blow during the summer. So for now, these are the spots we are sampling. Nevertheless, we keep hoping that the winds will die down so we can approach the more exposed areas at the northern part of the islands.

The ROV submersion took place at the eastern part of the strait, to the SE of Pta. Papagayo (on Lanzarote), and the divers dove at Isla de Lobos to the NE of Fuerteventura and off of Playa Mujeres to the SE of Lanzarote.

Estrecho de la Bocayna (La Bocayna Strait). Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Ana de la Torriente

Today we changed our location and travelled south, to the Bocayna Strait, to carry out two dives with the ROV, one on each side of the strait.

We documented black coral, seaman’s hand coral, yellow coral, pandora and monkfish, although in this case, the most impressive site was a field of glass sponges (Asconema setubalense) at 376 meters depth.

These sponges, which can reach up to 1 meter in height, are usually found off the coast of Portugal, hence the name (Setúbal, Portuguese city). Recently, this species has also been identified in El Cachucho, a seamount off the coast of Asturias. There are also texts from 1933 that mention these sponges seen off the coasts of Africa (Morocco) and in Concepción Bank, although after that, they were not mentioned again.

As such, this is the first time this sponge has been identified in waters of the Canary Islands. Furthermore, Oceana previously documented this species in the Seco de lo Olivos seamount.

Pta. La Tiñosa, SE Lanzarote. Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

Ana de la Torriente

Last night we stayed in Puerto Calero in order to be able to continue our work today around LIC Cagafrecho or Punta la Tiñosa.

Early in the morning, we submerged the ROV for approximately 3 hours. We traced a perpendicular transect to the coast, from 356 m to 55.4 m depth, covering a distance of only 0.4 nautical miles, approximately. The archipelago’s last platform is so narrow in some places that the seabeds drop suddenly to great depths. This allows us to see the different depths occupied by different species in one dive.

The NE wind started to blow in the afternoon, force 6, so we had to forget about our idea of a second dive with the ROV. We returned to port and took advantage to do some shopping.

The divers dove off the shoal of Playa Grande beach and, thanks to the collaboration of Jose from the Squalo dive centre, they did a night dive off the small dock on Playa Chica beach.

When we returned to port, we invited Vidal Martín Martel, the director of the Cetacean Museum of the Canary Islands and president of the Society for the Study of Cetaceans in the Canary Islands – scientific NGO focused on cetacean conservation and the dissemination of information about the marine environment of the Canary Islands – to come aboard the Ranger, so we were with him and his team discussing the importance of protecting the seabeds of the archipelgo.

Cagafrecho, Pta. La Tiñosa. SE Lanzarote. Monday, August 24, 2009

Ana de la Torriente

We reached Lanzarote first thing in the morning. To be able to work with the ROV, we scouted for a spot sheltered from the wind, to the SE of the island. We focused our attention on sampling the areas surrounding Punta la Tiñosa where there is a proposal for an LIC (Lugar de Importancia Comunitaria, or Place of Community Importance in English. This was an area proposed to be protected and included within the European framework in the Natura 2000 network.)

This area, located between Punta Gaviota and the port of el Carmen is known for having underwater caves in the coastal area. We submerged the ROV at depths of 60-80 m and 220-370 m with the idea in mind of learning about and documenting the sea bottom farther away from the cost as a continuation of the LIC proposal, known as LIG Cagafrecho.

In this area we found black coral (Antipathes furcata, Antipathella wollastoni, Stichophates sp.), white whip coral (Viminella flagellum) and (Alcyonium glomeratum) as well as cnidaria other and sponges that we have not yet been able to identify.

The submersion with divers took place in the same area, specifically in a place known as “The blue hole” where the divers go through a small rocky tunnel at a depth of some 20-27 meters. They also filmed and photographed an area of garden eels (Heteroconger longissimus).

Voyage to the Canary Islands. August 20-23, 2009

Ana de la Torriente

The voyage aboard the Ranger has been stupendous. We sailed the whole way with sails, and we took advantage of the force 5 or 6 NW and NE winds. First we passed the underwater mountains of Dacia and Concepción with the idea in mind of making some submersions with the ROV. However, in spite of the fact that sea and weather conditions have been good for sailing, the wind and some waves reaching up to 3 meters did not allow us to work with the ROV.

So... we continued on our course. We have been left no other choice than to leave these banks for another time throughout the campaign.

Of course, even though we were not able to document the animal life on this ocean bottom, surrounding the mountains, we saw a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), another group of striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) and another group of Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis), besides a turtle, many North Atlantic great shearwater (Calonectris diomedea), the odd European petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) and a shark. We were unable to identify this shark, but it appeared to belong to the genus Carcharhinus.

Chipiona (Cádiz). Day four of investigating the Chipiona sea bottom. Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Ana de la Torriente

Today is my first day aboard the Ranger. Since the start of the day, I have been able to see how everything is organized and coordinated, and how everyone is focused on their task.

It has been a very hot day, but the slight wind and choppy sea has allowed us to work without a problem.

We started first thing in the morning with a ROV submersion a little farther north than on previous days, off the mouth of the Guadalquivir River. As we were near the river’s mouth, visibility was minimal. However, we were able to document a 20 meter deep muddy bottom. Also in this area, we picked up a couple of sediment samples with the dredger. We came across some crabs, polichaetes and many snails or horny augurs (Turritella comunis) buried in the mud.

To finish off the day, the divers dove to the south of Bajo Salmedina within the area that we at Oceana propose to be included in the protected marine area of Parque de Doñana. In this area, nearing Chipiona, just 1.5 miles from shore, we were surprised by the huge forest of broad sea fans (Eunicella verrucosa) we found. Also, though to a lesser extent, the divers have filmed yellow sea fans (Leptogorgia sarmentosa), small coral (Polycyahtus muellerae) and tree coral (Dendrophyllia ramea). The most numerous fishes in the area have been annular sea bream (Diplodus annularis).

Chipiona (Cádiz), Third ROV dives. Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Ricardo Aguilar

Yet another day the sea is respecting us and showing us a small bit of calm. Today we went to an area just a little northward of the place we analyzed yesterday. We sampled sea bottoms with a depth of between 25 and 35 meters at different distances from the coast, from 5 to 8 miles. First we did some transects with the ROV and then we took some samples with a van Veen dredger.

All of the spots we have looked at have a compact mud which bears different types of worms, angular crabs (Goneplax rhomboides) and remains of mollusks: cockles (Acanthocardia sp.), little clams (Thracia cf. villosiuscula), horny augurs (Turritella comunis), etc. We have been able to thoroughly observe one of these crabs because it turned up in one of the dredgers. They live on very shallow bottoms up to places below 500 meters and they burrow galleries in the mud.

Elsewhere, we have changed sea bottoms with the divers. We came a little more than one mile from the coast. The submersion took place on a rocky bottom covered with sediment. Visibility is low as well. Nevertheless, different sea fans, hydrozoa, sea squirts, etc. can be seen as well as some fishes such as red-banded sea bream (Sparus auriga) or two-banded bream (Diplodus vulgaris).

Chipiona (Cádiz). Second day of investigating the sea bottom of Chipiona. Monday, August 17, 2009

Silvia García

Scorching sun, calm in the morning and force 3 winds in the afternoon.

Today, besides submerging the divers in the area where we found a coral forest yesterday at a point in the southern half of the area to be investigated, we took 3 samples of muddy sea bottom with a small dredger we carry on board. Some species of worm were found amid that mud, very rich in nutrients.

The divers have documented the richness of coral and sea fans at this point. They are quite spectacular images. These animals are normally found at a greater depth, but the water column holds a lot of suspended organic matter. Therefore, the light that reaches the bottom is less, thus enabling these species to develop.

Chipiona (Cádiz). First ROV dives. Sunday, August 16, 2009

Silvia García

Sunny, breeze, choppy sea, but good for working.

Sixteen nautical miles off the coast of Chipiona, we began with the submarine robot’s first dives at a depth of almost 100 m. Tomorrow we will start the transects to document the bottoms of the area proposed for installing the "Cruces del Mar" marine wind turbine farm. The purpose of this research is to minimize the impact that this type of project could have upon the marine environment. To do so, we must carefully analyze and locate the most suitable area to install it.

During today's dives, in the southernmost part of the area to be studied, toward Rota, we documented both muddy areas and rocks with coral and sea fans.

Almerimar-Chipiona Voyage. Saturday, August 15, 2009

Silvia García

Sunny, calm during the morning, and strong gusts of wind in the Strait.

Last night we left Almerimar bound for Chipiona which will take us about 30 hours of sailing. Going through the Strait has entailed sailing with the sails up because of the gusts of wind we have come across after coming from a completely calm Alboran Sea.

Of course, in the Strait, we have sighted numerous cetaceans, normally family groups, of both long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) and common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) and striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba); a mixed group of common and striped dolphins swam alongside the ship’s bow for quite awhile. On several occasions there were some babies and juveniles in these groups.

We also came across a huge ocean sunfish (Mola mola) sunning, and a good-sized patch of sargasso (Sargassum vulgare) adrift, uprooted from the ocean bottom by a storm or aggressive fishing gear.

Port of Almerimar (Almería), ROV’s arrival aboard. Friday, August 14, 2009

Silvia García

The INSTALSUB technicians arrived at 9:00 a.m. to begin loading and assembling a new ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle). Now it is 8:00 p.m. and they still have not finished outfitting all of the equipment. We are scheduled to set sail for Chipiona at 10:00 p.m., so there is no rest until everything is all set for sailing.

In these last few hours, the catamaran has gone from being sufficiently spacious, even with 11 people aboard, to a crew of 13 people and an infinite cast of submarine recording equipment and a huge purchase of food supplies for several days, plus the computers, stacks of books and wildlife guides, scuba gear, etc. that was already aboard.

Paraje Natural Punta Entinas-El Sabinar (Punta Entinas-El Sabinar Natural Wildland), Almería, Thursday, 13 August 2009

Silvia García

Sunny day, calm during the morning and some waves after noon, somewhat annoying for working.

All day today, the four Cymodocea nodosa restoration stations have been checked. This is an experimental recovery project for degraded sea prairies at the sea bottom off of Paraje Natural Punta Entinas-El Sabinar. The project entails sowing the seeds of this sea plant gathered from nearby healthy meadows.

Of note was when four adult bottle nosed dolphins approached our divers in just 14 meters of water during the third of the four immersions. Their cameras have been able to document swimming at these bottoms populated by Cymodocea nodosa.

Almerimar (Almería), Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Silvia García

Force 3 wind, slightly heavy seas and sunny skies.

An entire day of sailing toward Almería at an average speed of 5-7 nautical miles from the coast. The day aboard the ship has taken its course based on making preparations for the submersion on the following day. We had planned not to make any submersions today. We have spent about 30 hours sailing to cover the Valencia-Almería stretch.

Of note was the sighting, before noon, of at least 3 common long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas), swimming north off of the cost of Carboneras in Almería. Perhaps we did not see the rest of the group, as they tend to congregate in large-numbered family groups.

We entered the port of Almerimar at 8:30 p.m. without any time, as previously anticipated, for making any submersions.

Port of Sagunto (Valencia) en route to Almería, Tuesday, August 11, 2009.

Silvia García

Force 3-4 wind, swell, 100% cloud cover. Changing to force 5 wind and strong swell in the afternoon.

Today’s goal was to finally set sail for Almería, which will take us a little more than two days’ sailing. At 9:30 a.m. we left Sagunto for Valencia to refuel, and at 1:00 p.m. we finally left Valencia for Almería. There we will track the pilot sowing of the seeds of the sea phanerogam Cymodocea nodosa. Oceana undertook this project one year ago to test the possibilities of restoring these meadows in the area.

In the afternoon, the wind allowed us to hoist the sails and shut off the engines. We reached a speed of up to 8 knots of silent sailing. We are sorry to report we id not sight any cetaceans, birds or sea turtles.

Port of Sagunto (Valencia), Monday, August 10, 2009.

Silvia García

Force 3 NE wind, 100% cloud cover after a weekend of torrential rain and thunderstorms.

Due to a failure in one of the engines on the catamaran Oceana Ranger, the start of the expedition was postponed by one day. The departure was set for first thing tomorrow morning. For the moment, after the spectacular launching of the ship a few days ago with a giant crane, we resumed putting the finishing touches on everything for the start of the 2009 campaign.

After a navigation test, we confirmed that the port engine vibration has decreased after this morning’s repairs. It seems the difficulty is small and that the Ranger will be able to sail without any problem.