After decision-makers having aired the agreement on fishing subsidies reached by EU fisheries ministers last week as a great victory, the time has come to pose a couple of uncomfortable questions: Is this really the best way of investing taxpayer money to promote fishing activities? Moreover, will these funds become actually spent, or will they … Read more
Yesterday afternoon we unloaded the ROV. It is now 11:00, and we’re on our way to do a few last dredges before leaving for Valencia, where the Ranger will spend the winter. At the moment it’s pretty wavy, but we’ll see if it gets a little better and we manage to gather a few more … Read more
We dedicated most of the day to doing as many dredges as possible, but we also sent the ROV down for its last immersion after three years of work in the bank (Chella Bank, Seco de los Olivos). We sent it deep, to about -360 metres in an area that we hadn’t yet surveyed and … Read more
Although it was still not looking good based on the waves and currents, we headed out early to work, but this time, we used the Van Veen dredge, not the ROV. Our plan was to use the dredge to collect samples from different points around Seco de los Olivos. We got as far as 14 … Read more
– for all of us, because although we are supposed to be working in Seco, we are dealing with 5 knot wind. It’s being difficult to document the Chella Bank (Seco de los Olivos) this year, but at least we were able to do 11 ROV immersions in the first few days of the campaign, … Read more
The world is upside down: we came from offshore in the Atlantic wearing short sleeves and sandals and where the ocean was almost dead calm, to arrive into the “little” Mediterranean sea, where it is so rough for October that we are forced to stay moored in Almerimar. We arrived at Seco de los Olivos … Read more
Yesterday we finally had some dolphin sightings in the Gulf of Cadiz, but whales have been harder to spot. We are still trying though, and we spent the day today watching the sea. Despite the fact that the forecast was correct and fog did appear in the early hours of the morning, we managed to … Read more
The Berlengas islands are a nature reserve in front of the town of Peniche, Portugal, and a great example of how much more knowledge of the seabed we need. Though located only a few kilometers from the coast, in just two weeks we no less than 120 species were found whose existence was unknown in … Read more
At 9:00 pm today we’ll head back to Seco after spending a few good days of work in the Gorringe. It should take about two days of sailing, during which time we expect to see whales, particularly in the Strait and the Alboran Sea, where they are usually easy spot. But for that, we’ll need … Read more
This afternoon we arrived in Vilamoura, dropped off the Portuguese scientists and are now preparing to leave tomorrow for the Straits of Gibraltar. The sea is looking good, so it’s possible we’ll arrive at port ahead of schedule, which would be great as we will have more time to unload, prepare everything for the next … Read more
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