North of Pico Island
On the second day we kept at north of Pico island. The day dawned beautiful and auspicious for good dives for both teams, scientific and media. The images do not lie.
The scientific cams at 6:30 am, were deployed to record everything that happens in the coastal zone, 10m deep and in the deepest areas, at depths of 300m and 800m.
In the afternoon the weather got bad and all the teams had to return quickly to Santa Maria Manuela. The only team that kept working was the deep-waters who, aboard the vessel NRP Almirante Gago Coutinho, with the ROV “LUSO” sampling sediment for microplastic’s analysis and surveying the bottom, between the 1000m and 300m deep.
The bad weather on the channel got worse on the third day but still, in the morning, we managed to do some dives and we had the opportunity to observe several species of fish and invertebrates such as slipper lobsters.
During the afternoon we were forced to stop working and kept ourselves sheltered. Nevertheless we spotted a juvenile sperm whale jumping and showing great splashes with its big caudal fin. We all ran to the deck, with cameras, but it was far and ended up diving into the blue.
At night we “sail away” towards Flores island.
Photos 1 and 2 by Nuno Sá
Header and 10,11 and 12 by Manu San Félix
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