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Steaming in the morning, we arrived at our first station at 1100 when we got ready to begin calibrating the navigation system for the ROV Jason II. The sun was shining and the seas remained calm, a beautiful day on the Gulf of Mexico. It is difficult not to marvel at the beauty of the color of the water surrounding the ship. With puffy cumulous clouds in the distance and the pale blue sky, the deep blue water is inviting and tranquil, even with the gentle swell. Looking over the side of the ship, the rays of light penetrate in thousands of rays showing how clear the water is with bits of sargassum passing by. I am constantly looking for fish.

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With the sun setting, the Jason II was ready to go into the water. We are on the West Florida Shelf in about 500m of water. The crane lifted the ROV and deposited it in the water, lights switched on and behind the ship it went. The Jason has a counter weight, the Medea to keep it on course despite the movement of the ship and the seas. Medea was deployed right after Jason and the two began their slow descent into the depths. Medea is equipped with cameras as well so it can keep an eye on the operations and location of Jason as she cruises along the sea floor looking for corals and other marine life.

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The first station is only 500m so it did not take long for the Jason to reach the bottom. Then the images started to come through…first only hard substrate but then corals, fish, crabs, squat lobsters and other critters. A squid came to check out the ROV and hung out in the lights for a little while. It is amazing how many critters cover the sea floor. The deployment will be twenty hours so there should be lots of great footage and images. The scientists have never been to this site, in fact no one has, so it should be very interesting to see what we find.

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