19th October: Getting Ready

Getting ready!

Our first site is about 5 days away from Tenerife. Before arriving at the site needed everything to be ready, so over the past few days we have all played a hand in setting up the different labs and sampling protocols.

We have practiced the CTD water sampling; learnt the sediment coring protocols, and so many photos for species ID have been put up that you can barely see the walls in the main deck and control temperature labs.

We also got our first peak at the ISIS ROV and the command centre from which the ROV team control it, using almost computer game like controls to manoeuver it’s position and to “grab” the organisms we want from the sea floor using it’s arms. In the early hours of yesterday morning we arrived at sampling site number one. With our first water sampling having been carried out successfully, the ROV was sent down and is now at the seafloor. Let the coral hunting begin!

Written by: Vanessa Fairbanks