Auxias Marc - Oceana USA
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October 30, 2006

Auxias Marc

BY: Ricardo

September 23, 2006

The weather has not improved but we will continue our efforts. We will attempt to descend along the side of the submarine mountain, Auxias Marc. The work is not easy to carry out due to the strong currents, the swells and the wind, but after much hard work, we can finally discern the sea bottom. Again, we thought the day would be wasted, but as the hours go by, the weather conditions improve and the sea becomes calm; so we are able to continue our work more comfortably. Again we spot an extensive maerl bed. Toward one end, we see that the maerl bed begins to fragment, and again, we see the trawling marks.Further on, we spot some rocks crowned with gorgonias. First, we see the pink sea-fans (Eunicella verrucosa), and then some small yellowish ones we try to identify. If we are not mistaken, they are Paramuricea macrospina. We will try to confirm this as soon as we review the recorded images.

It is interesting to see that the hermit crabs in this area all have cloak anemones (Adamsia carciniopados) attached to their shells

During the day, we have also used the CTD at various depths in order to profile the water column by measuring chlorophyll, oxygen, temperature, etc.

The weather outlook for the next few days is not favourable, so we decide to quickly set sail toward the Emile Baudot bank to see if we can capture some images before the weather conditions force us to seek shelter in a cove or port.