April 22 2008
April 22 2008
The night watch team getting ready for a trawl to arrive on deck
Some of the trawl team, together with the ship’s MT’s emptying the last trawl
Laura Robinson shows one of many buckets filled by material during the last, monster trawl.
Sieving and cleaning the samples from the tow
Sorting through to isolate fossil from living corals
Spectacular photo by Dann Blackwood.
These fossil corals are exactly what Laura Robinson and her team are after.
Today was a great trawl day. After deploying and recovering a trawl at 2000 m this morning with only a small recovery (including some sponges, much to Kate Hendry and Laura Schejter’s delight, and a grand total of two fossil corals), another trawl was deployed at 800 m. After spending a good hour or so concerned that the net had been lost, because of some worrying tension read outs on the cable, the trawl was finally brought back to deck. Not only was the net fine, it was full to bursting with huge numbers of corals (fossil and living), as well as some sponges, echinoderms, sea anemones as well as a few hangers on (fish, octopus, shrimp). Everyone has been very busy, but very happy to have so much material! The day has been spent sorting, cleaning, photographing and cataloguing all the samples.
Now we have left Burdwood Bank and are transiting to the Scotia Sea, where the other science team led by Ian Dalziel have their sampling sites. We’re hoping to sample some of the seamounts on the way to their sample sites, so watch this space. The weather has been kind so far, but there are threats of higher seas on the horizon.
Photos taken by Dann Blackwood.