Lophelia II cruise update (09/24/2008)

No diving here today. A pressure wave rolled in from Nova Scotia (?), and the 5-7 ft. swells associated with the trough make ROV deployment and recovery a bit of a problem. Instead we’re mapping the seafloor with high resolution multibeam echosounder technology and looking at pictures from the days before. The image above shows a squat lobster with gooseneck barnacles and hydroids on a huge black coral colony at 300m depth.

Yesterday we didn’t see a whole lot of benthic megafauna, just a few sea stars, sea whips, and anemones. We dove on muddy mounds with an "expulsive past". Read all about it at NOAA’s OceanExplorer Website Sept. 23 log by Bill Shedd of the Minerals Management Service. We thank the stars for our marine geologists. They can make almost anything interesting!