May 21 2008
May 21 2008
Nearly home
Well, it was certainly a bumper crop of biology today! Our final otter trawl brought up a monster load of giant sponges, shaped like pillows and vases, scattering spicules all over the back deck. The haul will provide enough material to keep Laura Schejter and Kate Hendry busy for a long time! Box dredges then brought up perfectly preserved fossil corals, including some of the key species Laura Robinson and Rhian Waller came to Sars to find. Sars Seamount has certainly proved itself to be the benthic paradise we were all hoping for!
Tomorrow is our last day of sampling before we have to depart back towards Punta Arenas, so we’re all looking forward to more dredging and more sorting, and maybe a little sleep in the near future.
John Swartz, Rhian Waller, Laura Robinson and Taryn Noble wait impatiently for the last otter trawl of the cruise to surface.
Laura Schejter and Kate Hendry smiling in bemusement at the shear number of giant sponges brought up by the otter trawl.
A beautiful pink stylasterid brought up in a dredge from 1600m today.
The polyps of a deep-sea sea pen from 1800m today.
The otter trawl coming to the surface.
Greg Buikema empties the bumper haul of sponges onto deck.
John Swartz weighed down by a whole heap of sponges.