04.03.2013 (Monday).

My clock rings at 05:00. Fortunately, I hear it this time. As previous days, not cold outside at the end of the night. The dredge is put in the water at 06:06. Not much sediment in it (black sand) when it comes back. Moderate number of amphipods. The Agassiz trawl follows immediately and the sorting of the dredge is not yet finished when it comes up. Marie goes on deck and I finish the sorting. I missed something interesting: the trawl caught more than 40 huge Paraceradocus gibber, which were crawling in the mud. Still early in the morning (09:10), the trap system are released from the sea floor. It comes up without problems. Since it is still fairly dark, the flash system did work. I made a short video of that. The new flagpole survived its mission in the abysses but this time we lost the flag itself! The yellow flag, with the little iguanodon (the logo of our museum) sketched with a pen... One of the six traps is broken. Technically, the trap model conceived by Henri Robert is wonderful and extremely practical but since they are in rigid plastic, they are also fragile. I don't know if we will use the traps a third time during this cruise; it will depends on our tough time schedule and on the weather conditions in the Drake Passage. Once back in the lab, we first look at the samples of the trawl, and especially the Paraceradocus gibber. Their colour pattern is all clearly different from that of the deep Paraceradocus of the previous days, with almost no variation. This confirms our feeling of yesterday that two species are currently confused under the name Paraceradocus gibber: a shallow-water brown and white one  and a deep-water all livid brown one. It appears that the issue of the transport of the biological material back to Belgium is not yet solved as I believed.  Just after lunch, we sort the material of the trap. Not so many specimens but again a good diversity. One species not found the first time (Pseudorchomene coatsi) and two no longer found (Parschisturella carinata and Orchomenella pinguides). In the afternoon, the waves increase in strength. We have the luck to see twice humpback whales fairly close to the ship. Marie is so happy to see them...

(Cédric)

 

Paraceradocus gibber sensu stricto, lateral view. Total body length about 90 mm.

Paraceradocus gibber sensu stricto, dorsal view. Total body length about 90 mm.

Trap system coming up.

Trap system on surface.

 

 

Trap system back on board.

 

 

The traps.

 

The traps has come up (videos).
 

 

Pseudorchomene coatsi, total length about 12 mm.

 

 

Humpback whale.