Most tales of the open sea begin with some classic line about the seas being as rough as scorned lover or a furious ocean goddess unleashing her fury. Both the scorned lover and furious goddess in unison at sea welcomed our first full day out. Swells were at 20 providing a rough first night of sleep and rewarding me with multiple skull contusions. The weather also endeavored to keep the ROV Tiburon on deck but alas we succeeded in deploying. The newbies this morning participated in the safety briefing with the long-standing tradition of climbing into the survival suits which gives one the appearance of big red Gumby. We have a full scientific compliment representing not only members of MBARI, but UC Davis, Mills, Standford, CSU Northridge, and University of the Pacific.
Today our 8-9 hour dive was on Pioneer Seamount, an old volcano, dense with hard and soft corals, brittle stars, and sponges. Once specimen of the soft coral Keratoisis measured well over 6 feet in height, the trunk at its thickest-a full 5-6cm. I also collected 3 individuals of an undescribed species of nudibranch, that I collected just one of a little less than year ago on Davidson Seamount. I have been interested in both describing the species and characterizing its genetic variability among seamounts. Also collected on Pioneer was 3 gastropods of the genus Neptunea, a gastropod typical of the Monterey Canyon complex but previously unknown from seamounts in the region. Overall a productive day and one filled with exciting and important discoveries. Check in with the Seamount 2007 website mentioned in the previous post for updates from others on board and pictures. This evening we are taking a gravity cores, a 700+ pound beast of a device that is dropped to the bottom to take 10 feet long sediment cores. Tomorrow we dive again on Pioneer.