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Transoceanic expedition comes to an end

Monday, June 27th, 2005

We arrived in Majorca, after six months of navigation through the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Under the leadership of Xavier Pastor, we left Los Angeles ( California, USA ), in early January, and we have sailed 11,000 miles, traveling through the territorial waters of the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Bahamas, Bermudas, Azores ans continental Portugal. Hundreds of volunteers from a variety of nationalities participated through the voyage; among them, biologist, underwater cameramen and photographers, as well as divers who lent their support, in addition to the vessel's own crew.

During the expedition, we gathered 100 hours of film footage and 7,000 photographs of great quality, reflecting the wealth of marine biodiversity from different parts of the globe, and denouncing the aggression carried out against the oceans because of destructive fishing practices, marine pollution and climatic changes. At Oceana, we will use these images and scientific information to document our projects for environmental protection, and to demand changes to ocean management policies.

Oceana works mainly destructive trawling practices, pollution, caused by voluntary discharges of hydrocarbon substances from vessels emptying tanks and bilges, and against incidental captures of cetaceans, marine turtles and sharks with non selective fishing gear like driftnets.

While in the Mediterranean, we will work on various research projects and on marine education issues, with aims at preserving the species inhabiting the ecosystems of our endangered seas.

We donot want to end this journal without expressing our appreciation to all those people who participated in the expedition, for their support, professionalism, enthusiasm and interest, in collaborating with Oceana.

FOR THE OCEANS!

En route to Mallorca

Friday, June 24th, 2005

After we took refuge for a few days in Barbate ( Cádiz ), due to a great storm that kept us from going through the Strait of Gibraltar, we proceeded on our way towards the Balearic Islands, which will mark the end of our Transoceanic Expedition, from the Pacific Oceans to the Mediterranean.

Return to Lagos

Thrusday, June 16th, 2005 - Inés García -

: © OCEANA / Mar Mas

We cannot always accomplish waht we plan. This morning, we have bad weather, winds of 30 knots and 2 meters waves. Plans have been cancelled for the last dives to the Ormonde mount, a part of the underwater mountain range Gorringe Ridge.

Despite this, results from this phase of the Ranger's expedition, begun in January 2005 in waters of the Pacific, have been satisfactory. At the Gorringe Ridge carried out 12 dives ( each couple of divers went down 6 times ) with the purpose of documenting marine life and the state of this incredibly remarkable ecosystem, located about 150 miles from the nearest coast. It is beyond remarkable; we are aware that some of underwater scenes we have set eyes on down here have not been seen by human eyes before. We know we are making history. Research on these marine mounts and on mountain ranges around the world are very scarce.

: © OCEANA / Mar Mas

After loading the boat on the stern of the Ranger, with some effort, as the waves did not make the work easy, we have begun our return to Lagos ( Portugal ). Despite the bad weather, Ricardo Aguilar sighted a loggerhead ( Caretta caretta ) measuring over half a meter carapace length.

Climate condition improved as the day went by. The captain has decided to raise all sails of the Ranger. Once the ship was leveled off, we reached 8 knots. At this speed, taking a few naps, enjoying a good dinner and lintening to a bagpipe concert offered by captain Nuño, the crossing will seem very short.

Once we make port, the crew will leave everything ready for the crissing towards the Strait of Gibraltar and the Sea of Alboran en route to our final destination, Palma de Mallorca. A bittersweet feeling is rising among the crew. We know the end of the expedition is near. We are looking forwards to arriving at port, but our heads are filled with images piled up in our memory, of the more than five months of sailing that will be hard to forget. Now we must go through the last effort...

High risk diving and bound to Ormonde

Wednesday, June 15th, 2005 - Inés García -

A new day of high risk diving; the dives reach depths below 40 meters. The closest hyperbaric chamber is in Lisbon, 500 km away. Conventional helicopters will not be able to reach this place and make it back to land.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

All essential safety measures are taken; there is nothing to be concerned about.

Last night, we had a blues concert at the Ranger, by Danielle, Dana ans Indi. Meanwhile, we sailed twenty miles towards the Gorringe Ridge; to the mount of Ormonde.

This time it is harder for us to find the mountain summit. We find that all the available marine charts are wronhg and that none of the references we had were correct. At last, after modnight, we find the spot: at 32 meters deep in the most elevated area.

Next morning we awoke to a tranquil sea and sky. Soon after the first team of divers went down, those of us left onboard were visited by an ocean sunfish ( Mola mola ) measuring over one and a half meters long.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

Juan Carlos Calvín, biologist and underwater photographer explained to us how the submarine scene has changed. It is more thriving than Gettysburg, although at first sight, the predominant species are the same; the laminaria species measure up to four meters.

Brown algaes ( Laminaria ochroleuca ) are still found at Ormonde, but the presence of furbellows ( Saccorhiza polyschides ) also becomes apparent. These two kelp species appear to be great trees towering over a blanket of brown and red algae, including Dtciopterys sp. and Zonaria tournefortii. Everywhere we find frequent schools of Almaco jack ( Seriola rivoliana ) and clouds of Mediterranean rainbow wrasse ( Coris julis ). Our attention is intensely focused on the way spotted torpedoes ( Torpedo marmorata ) huddle up together, snoozing on each other.

By the end of the day, we look at the images we have captured and we prepare to spend the night adrift. We know after tomorrow's last dive, we must say goodbye to the submarine mountains.

Four dives

Tuesday, June 14th, 2005 - Inés García -

: © OCEANA / Mar Mas

This was another day spent in the middle of the ocean. Upon awakening on the Ranger, the sea was ever so still. After we spent the night adrift, we had only shifted 4 miles, which, in the opinion of the captain and sailors, is not too much.

Today, the diving team planned to do four dives. They have decided to dive in pairs and separately, in order to better control the situation. Mar was feeling discomfort in one ear, but she is better now. Everything seems to indicate this is going to be a very nice day.

: © OCEANA / Mar Mas

Meanwhile, Bibi, also known as pangueira, because she operates the panga or auxiliary boat like a pro, has taken the divers to the place of diving. We had time for many other activities on the ship. For instance, we carried out all maintenance work at the Ranger. We cleaned the windows at the bridge, made brackets to fold the sprit sails, changed the compressor filters to recharge the diving tanks and prepared food. We also seized the opportunity to go for a swim in the sea. On the surface, we saw a big tunid and almaco jack fish that were with us along the way.

Indi, the cook at the Ranger, always finds time to observe marine birds. Since our arrival at the Gorringe Ridge, we have seen european storm-petrels ( Hydrobates pelagicus ), and one cory's shearwater ( Calonectris diomedea ). The european storm-petrels are smaller size marine birds of, black in color, with a white spot on the tail rump. It feeds on crustaceans and plankton. They nest on rocky coasts and islands.

: © OCEANA / Mar Mas

The captain has given me permission to go along with Bibi on the auxiliary boat. As we arrived at the anchor buoy, again we were surrounded by about fifty european storm-petrels. On the surface of the sea, there was garbage, and remains of Blue bottle or Portuguese man-of-war jelly fish, and some type of mollusks. Since this observation, Ricardo Aguilar, Project Manager at Oceana and Juan Pablo Camblor, Zoea Director, have been commenting on this peculiar phenomena, such as the large gathering of Blue bottle or Portuguese man-o during the Ranger campaign in the Azores, or the great congregation of jelly fish in the Mar Menor during the summer months. Ricardo explained that the ocean trophic chain is transforming and that when species at the top levels of the food chain decrease in numbers, invertebrates go through rapid reproductive cycles. Changes in temperature can also influence this process as well sewage water and water treatment substance discharges, etc.

The divers are back, they have gone down from the bottom to the top of Gettysburg. They told us that the surface of the mountain is not uniform, but full of fissures, nooks and irregularities, which provide for a wide variety of habitats for marine life. As for fish, they observed the same species as yesterday ( almaco jack, Mediterranean rainbow wrasse, etc ). They have also filmed a spotted torpedo and found an area with gorgonian ( corals ) of small sizes.

We listened to classicla music at the messroom and Nuño, the captain plays bagpipes on the prow. Meanwhile, we remember all those who have been on the Ranger and made this project possible.

Getting ready for work on the Gorringe Ridge

Monday, June 13th, 2005 - Inés García -

: © OCEANA / Inés García

After 24 hours of navigation since we left the port of Lagos and proceeding on southwest direction, we have arrived at Gorringe. The crew prepares an anchor buoy to mark the place, which also serves divers as a guide when they sumerge. Finding an adequate spot to anchor has not been easy. Using the Ranger's sonic instruments, the captain has selected several spots within a 40-50 meter diameter, down to a depth of 30 meters. Bibi, the sailor from Cambados, organizes the auxiliary boat she will use to transport the four divers, the filming gear and a torpedo. The torpedo is a submergible device equipped with an electric motor and a propeller, and it is used by divers to go for long distances underwater, without much effort. At first dive, only a pair of divers will go down, these will be Mar and Dana Harlow. In addition to doing recognizance of the spot, they make sure the torpedo works well and they take a photographic camera along with them.

: © OCEANA / Inés García

It is estimated there are around 100,000 underwater mountains in the world, 800 of them are located in the North Atlantic Ocean. These areas of shallow waters provide particular characteristics both for oceanic movement and for marine fauna. The emergence of nutrients around the summit is a frequent occurrence, phenomena linked to ascending whirlpools. As these areas provide a resting place in the middle of the ocean, numerous species - some of them commercially in demand - gather here to reproduce and feed. Fish of slow growth characteristics and great longevity are commonly found here; for instance, the orange roughy ( Hoplosthetus atlanticus ) and the black scabbardfish ( Aphanopus carbo ). Therefore, these are very vulnerable species to abusive fishing methods.

: © OCEANA / Inés García

Gorringe Ridge is a group of underwater mountains of volcanic origin. Great part of their surface is formed by hard substrate where filter-feeding invertebrates ans species associated to algae forests proliferate. As soon as the divers resurface, they tell us of their experience. There is a strong current and the scenery is covered mostly by brown algae ( Zonaria tournefortii ) and Laminaria sp. The most abundant species sighted, were grey triggerfish ( Balistes carolinensis - later changed to Balistes capriscus ), almaco jack ( Seriola rivoliana ), Mediterranean rainbow wrasse ( Coris julis ), swallowtail seaperch ( Anthias anthias ), John Dory ( Zeus faber ) and Mediterranean slipper lobster ( Scyllarides latus ).

These mountains belong to the Economic Exclusive Zone of Portugal, there is a proposal to have this area declared Conservation Special Area ( CSA ) and includa them in Red Natura 2000.

We spent the night adrift on the summits of Gorringe. We will see what tomorrow brings.

We depart towards the Gorringe Ridge

Sunday, June 12th, 2005 - Inés García -

Two days went by since the expedition arrived at the Portuguese city of Lagos. During this time, we have secured provisions to continue the crossing: food, fuel, ship parts, etc. Xavier Pastor, who directed operations since the month of February has gone ashore, as did Nano and José Corral. Juan Pablo, Dana and Ines will proceed along with us, throughout the crossing towards the underwater Gorringe Ridge.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

We got up at eight o'clock this morning and after a half hour wait for the Channel drawbridge to be open, we were on our way. Afterwards, at the messroom a meeting took place among Ricardo Aguilar, Oceana Director of Research, and the divers who will document our next destination. They are: Dana Harlow, Juan Carlos Calvín, Juan Pablo Camblor and Mar Mas. They discussed details on how dives will be done in the next three days. Although it is always the case that safety measures are followed, this is more so in this case: we must take extreme precautions, because we plan very deep dives ( 30-40 m ), to take place in remote areas, far from land. Every diver will carry a line to hold on to the anchor line and a dive maker to indicate the diver location once dive is completed. A safety protocol has also been established to act with efficiency in the eventuality of a diving accident. There is an oxygen device onboard if an emergendy situation should arise.

En route to Gorringe Ridge we have met with 20 knot prow winds, which kept us from navigating with sails, and are going to delay a little our arrival at the underwater mountain Gettysburg. Until now, only a few birds have come to visit us: a young gannet ( Sula bassana ), a couple of Manx shearwaters ( Puffinus puffinus ) and almost at the end of the day, a great skua ( Catharacta skua ). Tomorrow we hope to find more marine life around the mountains, as they are considered to be truly authentic oasis in the middle of the ocean.

Gorringe ridge is a group of mountains of significant ecological importance. They are located at 150 miles from the Protuguese coast. Settled on marine beds over 3,000 meters deep and two of its peaks ( Gettysburg and Ormonde ) they reach barely 20-30 meters from the surface. Underwater mountains hold great importance for marine ecosystems. Great diversity of species can be found there, including endemic species that originate changes in marine currents, and many migratory animals make a pause in their journey to feed in the surronding area. We are all excited about the opportunity to dive and document an ecosystem as unknownt as this is.

Sighting of cetaceans and marine birds during the crossing of the Atlantic

Friday, June 10th, 2005 - Alicia Fraile y José Peñalver -

OCEAN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY

The Oceana Ranger's Transoceanic Expedition represents a magnificient opportunity to enjoy sightings of different species of cetaceans and marine birds. During the crossing of the Atlantic, between April 21st and June 9th, 2005, we were able to observe, and in most cases identify, diverse species of cetaceans and birds that, although a bit scarce in terms of numbers of individuals and species, it resulted interesting enough to us, in most cases.

Considering that the objetive of the Oceana Ranger research in this crossing is not to register or investigate any of the groups ( cetaceans and marine birds ), sightings were done at random and without methodology.

In addition to the above, it must be pointed out that work conditions ( visibility and ocean climate conditions ) made it truly difficult to identify species in certain occasions.

Below, we indicate most species we considered to be of interest, including both marine birds and cetaceans.

: © OCEANA / Indi

Marine Birds

Tuesday, May 3: Tropicbird ( Phaeton lepturus ), Wilson's storm petrel ( Oceanites oceanicus ).
Sunday, May 15: upon leaving Bermuda, in the mangrove area, we sighted a great blue heron ( Ardea herodias ), Yellow-crowned Night-heron ( Nyctanassa violacea ) and White-tailed or Yellow-billed Tropicbird ( Phaeton lepturus ).

: © OCEANA / Nuño Ramos

Monday, May 16: at 170 miles NE of Bermuda, we sigthed a Great Skua ( Catharacta skua ). This robust bird, similar to a seagull, large and of brown color, was hovering over the Ranger for two consecutive days.

Wednesday, May 18: Greater Shearwater ( Puffinus gravis ). There were sightings of this species almost ecery day as far as the proximity of the Azores Islands.
Friday, May 20: Roseate Tern ( Sterna dougalli ). This bird has a long and deeply splitted tail and a very pale coloration on the back and upper wings, which make it distinct from the common and arctic tern that may bo found in this area of the Atlantic Ocean.

: © OCEANA / Nuño Ramos

Thursday, May 26: at around 175 miles from Azores, we sighted Cory's Shearwater ( Calonectris diomededea ) who substituted the black caps. In the Azores, as it was the case with Madeira or the Canaries, the subspecies borealis ( C. diomedea borealis ) can be observed.
Thursday, June 2: Common Tern ( Sterna hirundo ). A pair lands on the prow of the Ranger. During great part of the crossing, sightings of different species of Petrels was quite frequent, even if identifying the different species did not prove to be easy.

Cetaceans

Wednesday, May 18: Blue Whale ( Balaenoptera acutorostrata ). It is the smallest of whales. This, together with the blow hole, the coloration on the back and dorsal fin-relatively large respects to the size of the animal-helped us to identify the specimen.

: © OCEANA / Nuño Ramos

Thursday, May 19: Blue Whale ( Balaenoptera musculus ). Although the sighting of any cetacean in the middle of the ocean is always an indescriptibable experience, contemplating a blu whale swimming next to the hull of our ship goes beyond any expectation. The whale measured 12 to 14 meters long, so it was not an adult ( blue whales are the largest animals on the planet, reaching up to 30 meters in length and weighing 150 tons). This observation was confirmed by its " daring " or " curious " behavior, sometimes swimming between the two hulls of the Ranger. It literally breathed in our faces. It had a characteristic pigmentation and its body was conspicuously covered by spots. On the other hand, the very small dorsal fin ( almost vestigial ) and the form of the head left us little doubt.

: © OCEANA / Nuño Ramos

Saturday, May 21: At eight this morning we sighted a group of Atlantic spotted dolphins ( Stenella frontalis ), resurfacing again anout twenty minutes later. We sighted a False Killer Whale ( Pseudorca crassidens ). Also, we saw a whale ( Balaenoptera ) but we were not able to identify the species.
Sunday, May 22: Atlantic spotted dolphin ( Stenella frontalis ). A group of forty individuals showed up on the starboard wing, and then a group of twelve dolphins moved towards the prow of the ship, where they remained for several minutes. As the sun was going down, we could see a whale leaping out of the water, at a distance of about four miles away. The leaps were accompained by very powerful and explosive breaths. On occasion, it slapped the surface of the water with its caudal fin, and both the fin and the tail area were visible, despite the distance. Their general behavior made us think it was a Humpback whale ( Megaptera novaengliae ) although this is mere speculation.
Tuesday, May 23: In the morning, a group of common dolphin sighting ( Delphinus dolphins ) and around midday, we saw a whale we identified as a Mike Whale ( Balaenoptera acutorostrata ), although it is not an absolutely reliable identification.
Thursday, May 26: we saw a group of common dolphins and breathing we identified as coming from a Sperm whale ( Physeter macrocephalus ). The breathing of a sperm whale is characteristic, because the blow hole is displaced to the left side of its head and the breathing forms an angle of 45 degrees.

: © OCEANA / Nuño Ramos

Thursday, June 2: Bottlenose dolphins sighting ( Tursiops truncatus ).
Friday, June 3: we sighted common dolphins ( Delphinus dolphins ). Several sightings throughout the afternoon.
Saturday, June 4: sighting of five unidentified whales; two were seen at eight in the morning and another group of three were sighted at eight thirty. All of them came from the larboard of the ship, moving towards the stern of the Ranger.
Tuesday, June 7: Five whales sighted ( a group of three and another of two ) at an interval of fofteen minutes. It was likely Fin whales ( Balaenoptera physalus ).

Arrival in Lagos

Thursday, June 9th, 2005 - Ester Casado -

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

Today we all got up early; we began leaving our beds since 5 in the morning to contemplate the spectacular view offered by the cliffs of Algarve's coast. Of course, this place has suffered the same urban abuse commited in any touristic place along the peninsular and insular geography of Spain.

Our entry to the Lagos marina is solemn, as we pass in front of the ancient fortress, which we reached through a natural channel and going under a drawbridge. A life size reproduction of an old caravel confirms to us we have arrived at port.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

Our arrival in Lagos marks the end of this phase of our Atlantic crossing. On this voyage, we have covered approximately 3,000 miles in 20 days of navigation from Bermuda to the peninsula. The crew is happy and tonight we will celebrate on land the satisfaction of having been part of a coordinated team and a job well done. But before, we must perform a general clean up of the Ranger and its crew.

Ah, and we received good news: the specialist Mar has invited as soon as she came to shore has diagnosed an outer ear lesion that must be looked after, but is not serious. She will be with us, along with many other great professionals in the next stage of our expedition in Gorringe Ridge, but that will not be for a few days.

We approach San Vicente

Wednesday, June 8th, 2005 - Ester Cadaso -

As you know, we have had rough seas, with the blowing hard on the prow side of the ship. By the end of the day, the weather improved. It is surprising how fast climate conditions change in the ocean. In a matter of hours, the situation can go from calm seas, without seabreeze in sight, to a storm, and vice versa. Although we know about the influence the oceans exert on the planet climate, it is in these circumstances when you really appreciate the dynamics involved, and how the sea as a whole is a living entity.

: © OCEANA / Nuño Ramos

As we come near Cabo San Vicente, we enter one of the main seaway systems of the Atlantic, with great numbers of merchant ships, oil ships and large fishing vessels, en route to the Mediterranean and to West Africa's fishing grounds.

This inevitably brings to mind the eerie experience suffered by Nano, one of the sailors, when he arrived to the port of Noaudhibou, in Mauritania, during a crossing onboard the Snooty. They arrived in the dead of night, with no previous reference of the port. As they came near, they realized the docking area was full of ships, so they were forced to anchor amidst them. However, it was a great surprise when, in the light of day, they became aware they had docked at a phantom port, filled with abandoned, upside down and sunken vessels. The spectacle was uncanny, but it was even more surprising when they heard the explanation: those vessels, most of them old fishing boats, had belonged to large companies, who abandoned them on that spot, after they could be used no more.

There are many problems linked to fisheries in West Africa, but no one takes notice of them. These are rich fishing grounds with entirely artisanal fleets, victims of inifficient or inexistent fishing regulation and under exploitation by European fleets.

The Ranger proceeds navigation with hopes of arriving at the port of Lagos in Algarve ( Portugal ), tomorrow morning.

Under winds of 40 knots

Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 - Xavier Pastor -

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

When silence reigns on board, it is a sign that no one feels like touching the keyboard. It has been the case with us the last couple of days, when the sea has been quite rough on us. As we draw near Lagos, in the Portuguese Algarve, the final stop in our Atlantic crossing, we are having the worse weather of the entire journey. The arrival in Azores is traditionally considered the end on the crossing, because the distance between Bermuda and Azores is the largest route for those who choose this course. However, outside this archipielago, we still have a good day's run ahead of us. We must not forget that the Azores are the summit of the Atlantic dorsal mountain range. When we set sails from its ports we still have another week of navigation through the Atlantic, before arriving at the first port of the European continent. And the weather is not favoring us on this crossing. We have winds of 35 to 40 knots, with high tides and sometimes really strong tides.

: © OCEANA / José Corral

As usual, the Ranger is holding perfectly, with no significant problems. There are just a few details that make life a little uncomfortable. Waves crash against the messroom’s ample windows, sometimes the water goes over the ship, and that causes water to seep inside through the joints. It seems that the new glass joints installed before leaving San Diego in the USA are not as watertight as they should be. The same happens in some of the berths that receive some water leakage from the hatch that goes to the deck. It is nothing serious, just a bit uncomfortable when you try to sleep dry. We navigate with sails most of the time, although when the wind speed is particularly inappropriate to get us close to our destination, we use one the two motors.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

We are in daily communication with the “ Espiritu de Xarei ”, a ship commanded by our friend Xurxo Gómez, manned by other old and new friends. They were docked by our side in Horta, and left a day after the Ranger, en route to the Mediterranean, just like us. They passed us when we were diving in the underwater volcano Joao de Castro, and now they travel 90 miles ahead of us, having to endure the same storm. Yesterday, when we spoke to them, the radio operator commented to us: “ our crew has opted for seclusion ”. And we laughed, because this is the usual attitude in all ships. In the face of strong setbacks, those not on guard duty or not essential to the voyage, opt for taking refuge in their sleeping quarters and the ship-usually the hub of life and activity-becomes a desolate place.

I can see this will be a rather short journal entry. See you tomorrow!

The migration of turtles and the case of Lucky

Sunday, June 5th, 2005 - Ester Casado -

Today, we encountered a small turtle swimming all alone. This reminds me that we are navigating on marine turtle’s main migration route.

: © OCEANA

Until relatively recently, the life cycle of marine turtles was unknown and it was not until 1986, when the American biologist Archie Carr-one the foremost experts on marine turtles in the world-published his theory that turtles nested on beaches of North America followed a round migratory journey along the Atlantic, using Gulf Currents. I say round journey, because the turtles come back to nest at the same beach where they were born. In 1993, Spanish researchers Ricardo Aguilar, Julio Más and Xavier Pastor-two of them are Oceana members-corroborated this hypothesis, adding new data on populations of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Investigator Marcos Santos, from the University of Azores, came across a curious fact in relation to how turtles- as is the case with many other marine animals- are attracted by the presence of underwater mountains, because of significant amount of nutrients found in the surrounding area and this brings turtles to these areas to feed. There is more; the steeper the inclination of the mountain, the more productivity is observed. As you may remember, we are in Macaronesia, area of underwater mountains and volcanoes.

: © OCEANA

The main threat faced by marine turtles, is incidental death from entanglement among fishing line hooks, which is the gear used to capture tunids and swordfish. Oceana is making efforts to reduce incidental captures of marine turtles in both sides of the Atlantic. Several modifications to fishing gear and bait have been proposed, prohibition zones and seasons, changes to the time of day when fishing lines are deployed, etc, in an attempt to reduce the significant number of incidental captures of turtles that occur around the world. We must keep in mind that marine turtles are considered endangered species.

One of these proposals is the use of circular hooks, in the shape of a “G”, which was first proposed in Japan, as a way to reduce labor related accidents to fishermen who were easily injured with hooks in a “J” shape. This was also considered a way to reduce incidental captures of turtles. It is harder for turtles to bite them and if so, the hook remains caught in the mouth, without being swallowed down to the esophagus. Currently, swordfish fishery in the United States has all together substituted “J shaped” hooks and replaced them by “G shaped” hooks. Oceana advocates for this substitution to be implemented also in Europe, together with other modifications to the fishing line industry.

: © OCEANA / Ester Casado

During our meeting with researcher Marcos Santos-who studied under Archie Carr at the University of Florida- he told us about his experimental work on turtles that have been captured by fishing lines with different types of hooks. He said that the location of the hook in the turtle’s body was pivotal in relation to the ensuing mortality rates. He added that the location of the hook in the body seems to alter migratory behavior, because turtles who carry hooks in the esophagus, oddly change course towards the East, contrary to turtles who have hooks caught in their mouth or throat, that, apart from the fact that the hooks are more visible, therefore facilitating extraction on the part of fishermen, these turtles continue their normal migratory move.

During our stay in Faial, we heard the news on the project involving Lucky, a loggerhead turtle who remained captive in a Danish aquarium during 5 years and returned to the sea in the Azores in September 2004, as part of a study on the feasibility of returning turtles to the wild after they are kept in captivity. Lucky is being monitored by the Danish project NERI, through a transmitter tagged to the carapace. Four months after her release, it was found swimming en route to the beaches of Trininidad and Venezuela, where she went at once, no doubt, while other tracked turtles –who were never in captivity-stayed behind around the Azores area. Both the project and the tracking data on Lucky can be seen on the internet at: http://www.seaturtles.trackit2test.cubitech.dk/main

Night guard duty, daytime guard duty

Saturday, June 4th, 2005 - Ester Casado -

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

During last night guard duty, the only new development was the proximity of a merchant ship that came close from the port side of the Ranger. Their potent headlights caught us by surprise, and it made us think it was a fishing boat; but they turned the lights off, and kept only the normal lights on. The ship kept coming closer and Bibi identified it as a merchant ship, so it was appropriate to establish radio communication with them to confirm our position.

“ Ship in position 35 degrees 17N and 26 degrees W, this is the Ranger. Do you copy? Over ".

“ Ranger, Ranger, ship in position. I copy. Over. ” They answered alter a brief wait. Whew!

“ We are at 2 degrees from your starboard ” Do you see us? Over

“ Yes, I see you, no problem ”

“ Ok, thank you and have a good watch. Stand by channel 16 ”

They had seen us, so our possible concern was gone.

It is odd, but the time during nocturnal guard duty goes by faster than during day time duty, even considering the many people around and improved visibility. During the three hours of our morning guard today, we had one moment of excitement when, as I was at the helm, the wind speed increased until the ship reached a velocity of 11 knots. The force of the wind was noticeable and we could see how it knocked on the sails, so our captain, Nuño, did not hesitate a moment in changing the bigger sail from the sailmast for the staysail, to keep them from breaking and the wind speed calmed down and settled, averaging at 9 knots, a much more convenient speed for this ship. Of couse, in the course of the day, we surpassed the previous record of the Ranger: 210 miles covered!!

At the moment, we are not sighting a large variety of species. The only species we see repeatedly are the Jelly fish: Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia physalis) that pass around us like a floating menace. Of course, the lovely dolphins have come to play around the prow of our ship, about three times today.

Everyone onboard is excited with the possiblity to see a sperm whale. This animal has become our fixation during the crossing from the Azores to Lagos.

We still have another week of navigation without coming ashore and the feeling onboard is relaxed. Books pass from hand to hand, Jose entertains us playing bossanova on guitar, I write journal entries and we all worry about Mar’s ear condition, wishing he recuperates by diving time at the Gorringe Ridge.

Nocturnal luminiscence

Friday, June 3rd, 2005 - Ester Casado -

My first nocturnal guard duty has provided for a perfect lesson taught by Bibi, though young, she is a highly qualified sailor, and with her fresh personality and serenity, she has instantly gained my trust. Throughout my three- hour guard dury shift, Bibi has taught me how to keep watch for any anomaly that may occur along the route, check for wind speed, or keep an eye on the horizon for some ship. She also taught me to manage the helm, maintaining the ship’s course as marked, at 104 degrees.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

During our guard we were visited by some bottlenose dolphins that kept us company for 15 minutes. Thanks to the bio-luminescence of the sea, tonight we were able to clearly observe the lighted trail they leave behind as they move, and of course, I was surprised by the speed and swiftness of their shift. It has been a truly emotional time for me, keep in mind that I come from a arid place, and I am not accustomed to this wonders. Standing by the larboard, listening to the sound made by the golfinhos-dolphin in Portuguese-swimming and leaping about in the dark and contemplating the luminescence they leave behind has been a wonderful experience.

The nocturnal luminescence observed in all seas is produced by protozoa called dinoflagellate, part of the plankton family. When the water is agitated, they move about and this causes to illuminate, adding a touch of magic to the dark waters during the night.

I have been onboard the Ranger for two days and I must recognize that even though I came armed with all sorts of known anti nausea medication, it is only thanks to some drops Xose has given me (I will not mention the name, not to advertise for anyone) that nausea has not taken over me, although it has made attempts. The movement of a catamaran is completely different from that of mono-hull ships. Although its swinging movement is much softer, some crew members have referred to it as being similar to a pea on a frying pan.

During dinner, a pair of common terns (sterna hirundo) came to visit and although the entire crew was sitting around the table dining on some tasty lentils, most run out, armed with cameras, to take pictures of these birds. They did not scare off; they even stayed around sufficient time to be photographed by our nature loving cook, Indi, who has extrasensory abilities to frighten off little animals that come near us. The terns are also known as swallows of the sea. They are svelte birds, their wings are long and narrow and the tail is divided. Our proximity to the Azores archipelago explains this visitation, they are coastal birds and not likely to be found in the high seas.

Diving by the volcano

Thursday, June 2nd, 2005 - Xavier Pastor -

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

Nearly Fifty miles from the islands of Pico and San Jorge is the location of the Joao de Castro ridge, an underwater active volcano standing at 1,000 meters from the bottom and whose summit is just 13 meters from the surface of the sea. The sight around them is impressive, because of the methane gas emissions in the form of sumbarine fumaroles we can see and in general the hydrothermal activity observed around is worth seeing. There are also very interesting ecosystems emerged in the area: it is an illuminated oasis at surface level, in the midst of a dark world at the heart of the Atlantic.

The visit to the surrounding area of Azores was planned since before our ship arrived in the archipelago, but our interest grew as we read scientific works on this underwater volcano and as we exchanged ideas with researchers from the Department of Oceanography and Fishing from the University of Azores.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

Dives from the previous days took place at the Island of Faial-where the Ranger was docked-and were done under very harsh conditions. The sea was agitated, visibility was frankly poor and the water temperature did not exceed 16 degrees (celcius). Although the equipment used by Oceana divers was very well maintained to ensure quality and safety standards, the truth is we had not considered at the moment using what is known as “dry diving suits”. This type of equipment is very expensive, and is used for diving at very low temperatures, contrary to wet diving suits, which lets water circulate on the inside of the suit. We use the latter type while on board the Ranger. As a matter of fact, most dives to take place in this expedition were planned for temperate, tropical areas such as the Mediterranean in summer months. However, Bermudas and the Azores have been the exception.

So Mar Mas was fitted with a semi dry diving suit she had brought along and Soledad Esnaola wore two layers of wet diving suits. In those conditions, they faced three daily dives, each lasting forty minutes and under close watch by Bibi Alvarez, who remained sitting on the auxiliary boat. Bibi was “promoted” to the rank of first officer of the Ranger, after Carlos Perez departed Azores to return to Spain, in order to prepare new activities for the ship upon arrival in the Mediterranean.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

New difficulties were added to those mentioned above. Our divers had intended to explore underwater caves located near Horta, but they were kept from doing it by groups of thousands of Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia physalis ). These animals gathered in the inlet area of the island, carried by the action of the existing wind and tide. The dangerous nature of these animals-related to jelly fish-, whose bite can cause dangerous reactions in a person and even death in a few cases, made us reconsider our original plan. Therefore, we moved the dive to an underwater mound between the islands of Faisal and Pico. However, once inside the water, the divers realized that strong underwater currents and poor visibility made it practically impossible to proceed. That is why we had to settle for carrying out dives in less interesting areas, where we were able to film and photograph all forms of fish, equinoderms, and nudibranch species. Analysis of these images is still pending.

: © OCEANA / Mar Mas

As we left Horta on Wednesday, we did not have much hope that our luck would improve. There was a 20 knot wind; we had overcast sky and swelling ocean waves. Nevertheless, after we discussed it, we decided to try and go to an underwater volcano, close to Joao de Castro ridge. We arrived the next morning, this was yesterday, and after analyzing the situation once again from the viewpoint of the safety of divers and the rest of the crew, and considering that, surprisingly enough the wind and sea conditions were improving, I decided, jointly with the captain, the first officer and divers, that we would attempt sumbersion.

: © OCEANA / Mar Mas

The position indicated by the GPS was later confirmed by the ship’s sonar system after several rounds. In effect, at the right spot, rising majestic at 1 km from the abyss, the Joao de Castro presented a sort of plateau, at a depth of 50 meters. It is only 600 x 300 meters on the surface and several peaks rise up from that point, forming the crater of the volcano. One of these was clearly registered by the sonar system at 16 meters deep. At that point, the captain, Nuño Ramos, ordered to cast the diving anchor, consisting of an anchor with a 10 meter chain and a 40 meter line, tied to an orange surface marker buoy whose purpose is to mark the maximum elevation point and provide divers with a point of submersion and resurface. A reference and support spot in the middle of the ocean. It was difficult to find one’s way in such a “reduced” surface.

: © OCEANA / Mar Mas

Casting the rubber auxiliary boat was no easy task because of the surf, but a team of six people under directions from Nuño and Bibi made it possible. Meanwhile, the divers got ready for a first recognizance dive, without cameras. Once everything was ready, they went to the diving orange buoy to start diving. Unable to anchor at this depth, the Ranger casted an alternative form of achor; a type of small parachute allowing for better stability and reduce drifting while the ship is standing still.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

After a long half hour, we saw the divers emerge from the water and speak to Bibi, who waited for them at the dingy: “Bingo! We we found the spot!” The buoy’s anchor had fallen right on the volcano’s peak, which according to Mar and Sole, was in full hydrothermal activity, emitting gases, hot water, and making spectacular burbling sounds. Loud cheers were heard onboard the Ranger.

After a prudent waiting period, to liberate the nitrogen accumulated in their blood during the first dive, he divers changed their oxygen tanks, seized their video and photographic cameras and dove again; and later, a third time.

We have seen the images. Swimming around in a background filled with green, brown and red algae, color altered at times by the sulfide emissions, we see great blactail combers ( Serranus atricauda ), ornate wrasse ( Thalassoma pavo ), rainbow wrasse ( Coris julis ), parrotfish ( sparisoma cretense ) and dolphin fish ( Coriphaena hippurus ). A few meters further, we see a small school of Striped red mullet (Mullus surmuletus), and numerous Bermuda chubs ( Kyphosus sectatrix ) swimming together with bluefin damselfish ( Abudefduf luridus ), among other species still not identified, in addition to Bearded Fireworm ( Hermodice carunculata ) specimens.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

Today we have spent the night standing still, near the buoy. We are considering the possibility to repeat dives to gather more footage and photographs. However, Mar has awakened with some discomfort in one of her ears, experiencing some slight bleeding during the night. Nothing serious, it is just a small blood vessel burst, but it was enough for us to arrive at the decision not to take any risks. We need Mar and Sole in top shape.

This is why we decided to haul up the dinghy, raise the anchor back onboard, and set sails for Lagos, south of Portugal, the next stage of our expedition and the first European continental port the Ranger will visit after its transoceanic crossing. Our arrival at Lagos is expected to occur on June 9^th.

Mountains emerging from the sea

Wednesday, June 1st, 2005 - Ester Casado -

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

Our arrival at Horta (Faial) marks a new shift of crew members, but crew members at the Ranger are used to changes and always welcome new additions with a smile. Houssine, the underwater photographer, who was with us from the fist day, had to go back home for family reasons. Carlos and Guayo also left us, to take care of activities at the office. Two new sailors have embarked: Xose Manuel Gándara, a Galician based in Pontevedra, whose passion is sailing, and Nano Valdés, from Mallorca, who joins our expedition after navigating for 4 months onboard the Snooty and the writer, Ester Casado, I am the Director’s assistant, at the European office of Oceana.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

As mentioned in previous journal entries, the island of Faial is small (24 x 16 km), but one of the most important islands in the Azores, and required destination port for all ships crossing the Atlantic, as it is the case with the Ranger. The marina is busy with constant activity, ships moving in and out. It is said that the greatest seamen have passed through here. Of course, what I can confirm is that our crew is constantly meeting old acquaintances from former journeys, for instance, the Snooty sailboat, mentioned before. We had to dock right alongside it, on starboard side. The sailboat belongs to Sinto Bestard, a veteran Mallorcan seafarer who went blind twenty three years ago, which has not kept him from sailing around the world and even reach Antarctica. Another encounter was with Xurxo Gómez, in charge of the Espíritu del Xarei, and old acquaintance of many of Ranger’s crew members, from the times he conducted Greenpeace’s Zorba in its heyday.

The passion for the sea is apparent throughout this important and old whaling port. It seems incredible that whales were hunted with these ships until 1986, when this activity was prohibited, even though the Azorean fishermen caught two more sperm whales after prohibition, to live up to their legend.

: © OCEANA / Ester Casado

Marine issues are also present in Horta from the scientific viewpoint. We had the opportunity, while here, to participate in important meetings with members from the Oceanography and Fisheries Department of Azores Univesity. We also met with its Director, Ricardo Serrano Santos, and researchers Joao Manuel Goncalvez, Monic Silva and Marcos Santos, experts in underwater mountains, fisheries, cetaceans and marine turtles. In their respective fields, they develop important research work while based on this vital enclave for marine research. We must not forget that the Azores are a model of fishing sustainability for all of Europe.

: © OCEANA / Ester Casado

Faial is also the site of one of the most amazing natural phenomenon of the XX century. In 1957, a smoke column 400 meters high surprised inhabitants from Cabo Capulines. It was the eruption of an underwater volcano, which created a mountain of ash and lava, which, curiously, sank back in the ocean. Soon after, in June 1958, there was new seismic activity and eruption of lava, which gave rise to a mountain, 99 meters tall, which emerged from the sea. This phenomenon increased the island surface in 2, 6 squared kilometers, burying the lighthouse and neighboring houses in the process. The sight of the lighthouse and the mountain of lava, as well as the graphic evidence from the event are all quite astounding.

Today in the afternoon we set sails for Lagos (Portugal) but on the way, we want to stop to do a field check of the activity present on the thermal area of Joao de Castro, where remarkable underwater methane chimneys emanate from a still active volcano.

Period and semi colon

Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 - Eduardo de Ana -

: © OCEANA / Guayo

Today is my last day onboard the Ranger, after crossing the Atlantic from Bermudas to Azores. Tomorrow, Ester Casado, Executive Assistant at the European office of Oceana will come onboard, to continue narrating the events on this Transoceanic Expedition that began last January 17^th.

Starting tomorrow, I will be at the office again, coordinating the European section of our webpage, together with the rest of the departments, and facilitating the process so thte work we carry out at Oceana for the research and protection of the oceans may be instantly known by anyone who needs it, thanks to internet, this transmission tool capable of reaching the entire world.

I do not want to say goodbye to this, my first stay onbard the Ranger, without thanking my travel companions, and express my gratitude for the opportuntiy to participate in this exciting adventure, for the welcome, the assistance, the lessons learned and the good disposition.

For the Oceans!

Week end in Horta

Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 - Xavier Pastor -

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

Horta, the capital of Faial, is a small port city that was able to maintain its charm through decades, keeping the style on all buildings, restauring facades, and making sure no urban aberrations are built. They took care of every detail in order to preserve the city’s tradition and uniqueness. At the same time, its inhabitants have gained economic prosperity, and we perceive a sensation of affluence and general wellbeing among its 16,000 inhabitants.

It is a relief for a Mallorcan to find that some island inhabitants from originally poor regions have not necessarily become destructive beasts to the landscapes, cultures and ecosystems. Economic progress is possible while still maintaining respect for all that. Azores is a proof of this. A contributing factor may be the existence of governors among the islands who are endowed of some level of sensibility and decency.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

The marine at Horta, integral part of the city, is one of four most widely used ports by sailboats in the world. We are not just speaking of the weekend sailboat users, those who spend most of the day in their luxurious boats docked, not going out to sail. Those do not make it to Azores. The ships that come to this port are those who cross the Atlantic, circling the globe, wandering this ocean from North to South.

This port is bursting with life. Last weekend, while we made repairs onboard and took care of details on the Ranger after the crossing from Bermuda, all sorts of activities were going on around us. A Spanish team-formed by people from Cataluña, Mallorca and Ibiza-was the winner of a triathlon competition held among teams from several islands. This involved a combination of windsurfing, climing a volcano in the neighboring island of Pico on mountain bikes and a canoe crossing with finish line in Horta. Here, participating teams were regaled with hours of concerts, played at the port’s esplanade.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

Meanwhile, three old whaling ships in Azores, now restored, went on a small regatta along the bay, across the port. Fast and stylish, they give us an idea of the efficiency they must have displayed in the hunt for cetaceans and of the bravery and ability of its crew when they ventured out into the Atlantic in these modest vessels, armed with hand operated harpoons. Azores was involved in the hunt for sperm whales until 1986. A movie filmed some five years ago, protagonized by Emma Suárez and titled La Dama de Porto Pim, was set in the whaling era. Porto Pim is a small group of houses built where the whaling factory was located. Today, it is an environmental education center.

There used to be a series of observation points on the island, where whalers would keep watch, searching for sperm whales, and when these were sighted, they immediately notified the boats that- powered by sails or paddles- launched the persecution and the hunt. Numerous vestiges are left from the whaling tradition era in the island, such as artisan arts and crafts engraved on teeth and bones of sperm whales.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

Today, the old whale hunter’s observation points are occupied by scientists or employees of different small whale watching companies. This is another example-when done with appropriate regulations-of a way to transforme an economic resource into a sustainable form of business.

All this port activity can be observed from the Peter’s Sport Café, a true insititution for those who pass through Horta. It is run by three generations of a family who decided to maintain the character of an old tabern from the whalint era, and turn it into a eating place where you can have breakfast, lunch or where you can have a few drinks until very late hours.

Oceana Wavemakers

Saturday, May 28th, 2005 - Eduardo de Ana -

During our second day in Horta, we were visited by Duncan, one of the more than 300.000 Oceana collaborators from around the world. As soon as he knew, that the Ranger would be in Azores, he got in touch with us, to offer his collaboration.

: © OCEANA / Guayo

Duncan is the owner of Mid Atlantic Yatch Services, a company specialized in boating supplies in the Island of Faial and he was very helpful with the preparation of a stibor generator and helped us with cleaning one of the two fuel tanks of the Ranger, where we had detected excess water.

Duncan had the help of David during his work onboard, and during short resting periods (the operation has lasted all morning) we had the opportunity to talk about his work, the state of the water around Azores and of how thrilled he was in being able to help Oceana when he found out of the Ranger’s visit to Azores.

Throughout the morning, Mar, Sole and Houssine have contacted a couple of diving schools to check on the status of areas that were reported as “hot spots” by Ricardo Aguilar, from our office in Madrid, and that we film. After we had dinner onboard (fried eggs with salad, prepared by Indi, and, as everything he has prepared since he came onboard in Fort Lauderdale, was a taste of heaven), the group has gone diving with Bibi in one of the dinghys.

Unfortunately, the areas visited were plagued by hundreds of Portuguese Man of War (Physalia physalis), and it has not been possible to dive, so it has been delayed for a few days.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

Welcome to the Ranger in Horta ( Azores )

Friday, May 27th, 2005 - Eduardo de Ana -

After my latest night guard duty in this Atlantic crossing, I have been able to sleep a few hours before Nuño and Carlos played the bugle.

The truth is today we all were able to sleep in. Before we arrived in Horta (Island of Faial) we cleaned the deck area and the messroom, something we were not able to do the last few days, because bad weather and the poor conditions of the sea kept us from doing it.

: © OCEANA / Guayo

After an uneventful entry to port, we docked at the Marina in Horta, next to the oceanographic and fisheries research boat, belonging to the regional administration.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by representatives from the government of Azores; among them, Luis Fernandes, Regional Fisheries Director and the Director of the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries, Dr. Ricardo Serrano Santos, in representation of Azores University.

It is interesting to point out that, in the case of the Automous Government of the Azores, fisheries management is not part of the Regional Council or Secretariat of Agriculture, as it happens with the Spanish Autonomous Communities that duplicate the central government structure. In Azores, Fiheries is an integral part of the “Environment and Sea Coucil” (" Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Mar ".). This is a progressive decision in regards to the marine environment, because the fishing activity is integrated to the environment and this allows regulating fishing activities depending on its impact and not exclusively on interests around extraction.

: © OCEANA / Guayo

It would be very interesting if the Spanish Automous Communities-and of course the central government as well-began to advance towards this kind of government structure, which recognizes that the environment does not end at the horizon, but that the ocean and the marine floors also deserve environmental consideration from the Administration and that they must not be considered exclusively as areas to extract fish, no matter the consequences.

The University of Azores is a key institution for the study of underwater mounds. Last week, the university held a meeting-at the old whaling plant’s reconditioned facility in Faial – with the participation of the most prestigious international researchers on this subject, who came from Portugal, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Israel, Canada, United States, New Zealand, and Australia. The international experts met to present chapters of a book titled “Underwater Mounds: Ecology, Fishing and Conservation” to be published in 2006 by the scientific publishing company Blackwell Science, from Oxford, in the series on Fish and Aquatic Resources.

Underwater mountain researchers expressed concern for the practically irreversible deterioration that bottom trawling has caused on the fragile ecosystems in these areas of great depths.

: © OCEANA

Dr. Serrano Santos himself has been part of a group of scientists who travelled to Brusels to support the Coalition’s position for the Deep Sea Conservation Coaltion in Protection of the Marine Floor (DSCC) of which Oceana is a part and that is requesting a moratorium on bottom trawling practices in the high seas.

The meeting we all attended onboard the Ranger, between Government representatives, the University of Azores and Oceana was filmed for Azores television and parts of it were reproduced for local news.

In addition, the Azores congressional representative before the EU Paulao Casaca, a politician particularly active in the protection of the waters in Azores and against bottom trawling, wrote a welcoming message for the Ranger, which he sent to us from Brussels and distributed it among the archipelago’s communications media.

Once formal meetings and arrival proceedings to Portugal were resolved, the crew made it an urgent matter to go straight to Peter’s Sport Café, for many years an oblilgated stop in Horta, frequented by crews of ships arriving at this port after long voyages. A few beers helped us recuperate and from there, we headed for the showers.

The Ranger and protecting the waters of Azores

Thursday, May 26th, 2005 - Xavier Pastor -

We are in Azores waters. We hope to arrive tomorrow ad midday at Horta, a port in Faial Island. The second part of the expedition is, in theory, the most critical step from the navigation standpoint, and it appears that we are going to complete it successfully. The Ranger has demonstrated to be a sturdy, safe ship, and life onboard has been perfectly endurable, despite discomforts brought about by bad weather throughout these two weeks of isolation from the world, since we left Bermudas. There was no incident at all among the twelve crew members; on the contrary, at moments when we experienced the worse climate conditions, laugher and music were heard from the messroom. The crew has shown a good sense of humor and willingness to work, which is a lot to say.

This crew needs a shower (or two) and an urgent visit to the town’s tavern. In that order.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

When we arrive in Azores, we will have our first encounter with Europe since we began our expedition in California, back in January. This archipelago holds crucial importance for Oceana campaigns. Since historical times, Azores has not allowed bottom trawling activities within 200 miles around their islands. When Portugal joined the European Union, a waiting period was established, which ended in 2004, after whicha and due to specific EU treaty conditions, should open a process of allowing fishing boats from any European country to fish in their waters. Of course! Among other expectant fisheries, the Spanish trawlers were keeping close watch. The regional government of Azores filed a class action suit at the European Justice Tribunal, against the European Commission, to try to stop what would represent a barbaric ecological disaster and social injustice against generations of artisanal fishermen from the islands, who, for decades preserved their seas by using artisanal, sustainable fishing techniques. Oceana, jointly with other organizartions like WWF, Seas at Risk and Greenpeace went in support of the government of Azores, in our position as co-petitioners in the judicial process.

This issue is not yet resolved in court, but the European Commission has shown a positive sign by not allocating capture quotas for trawlers in 2004 and 2005 for this archipelago, as well as for the Canaries and Madeira. It is a positive provisional measure, but we advocate for it to become definitive.

To remember this story, today Oceana sent out a press release announcing the arrival of the Ranger in Azores and reiterating our organization’s support to the position held by the regional government in regards to this issue.

In addition to carrying out our regular dives while staying in the archipelago to gather graphic evidence of the marine biodiversity of this area, and the threats they are under, our crew will make time to keep meetings with scientist, politicians and journalists and continue discussions to achieve the definitive protection of the waters in Azores against bottom trawling.

These will be the Ranger’s first miles in Europe.

We approach Azores, in the midst of a storm

Wednesday, May 25th, 2005 - Xavier Pastor -

We are approaching Azores. We estimate our arrival for Friday the 27th in the morning.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

The bad weather continues. We are against prevailing wind. This morning we had winds of 35 to 40 knots. The worse is, they come from North East direction, that is, the wind practically hits the prow area, around the larboard mast. The winds reduced our speed to about 5 knots. We have lowered the jib, but we kept our mainmast sail, with some sail reduction and the mizzen, decided to lower itself, when one of the two ropes holding it hoisted broke. We resorted to using one of the motors, alternating the larboard and starboard motors, waiting for the wind to ease and allow us make full use of the sails. Were you not supposed to find carrying winds in the Atlantic? Well, as we did the rest of the crossing: always prow first (against the wind).

The spritis are good, although most people not on guard duty take refuge in their beds, to keep from bumping against one place or another.

There are heroes: Mar and Houssine baked bread, under these circumstances.

Today, Houssine has repeated the operation, this time helped by David. Indi has also began to cook. Hey! And I am writing, following the computer all over the table, which has its merits too!

The winds are back

Tuesday, May 24th, 2005 - Xavier Pastor -

Winds came back three or four days ago, along with a storm we have been trying to circle around and keep at length from it. In general, winds followed a Northeast direction, at 20 knots, sometimes increasing up to 30 knots. We advance at full sail again. When Bibi, Sole and Jose were on guard duty, the Ranger reached a speed of 10 knots, despite the fact that the wind direction is not particularly in our favor. If someone is following the route of our ship on the tracking system-which sometimes freezes up, as we were been told-will be able to see the Oceana Ranger slightly wiggling around the Atlantic, on occasions shifting to Northeast direction when the situation allows, to be able to take advantage of winds following that direction, or going down in Southeastern direction and then make port in Azores. The Gulf current probably helps by pushing us with a force just below one knot.

The truth is this ship is trustworthy. It firmly endures the force of the sea, although some of the waves that get between the two hulls hit with impressive force on the inner side, right where someone usually rests the head when sleeping. As David the mechanic mumbled the other day in his American accent:”If Steve was onboard, he would be proud of the ship the chose”.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

One job is not at all comfortable in this circumstance is to work with computers. Keeping one’s eyes fixed on the screen is not pleasant, so we try doing it as little as possible these days. We are less eloquent and communicative with the outside, at least in writing.

Nevertheless, several times a day we establish radio communications with other ships navigating throughout the Atlantic, and even through other oceans. It is a forum where we exchange information on positions, wind intensity and direction, state of the high seas, situation onboard and any other data that may be of interest to those who navigate. Day after day, we form relations with crewmembers onboard ships traveling hundreds-sometimes thousands-of miles away from the Ranger. The most experienced crew members in our ship often recognize the names of friends or acquaintances they met in other trips.

It is particularly interesting to participate in “La Rueda de los Navegantes” initiative created by Rafael Del Castillo, almost two decades ago, broadcasting from Palmas de Gran Canaria, where dozens of ships routinely participate every night at 22:00 UTC. For many of those ships, weather predictions and other data they gather from La Rueda are vital to their comfort and safety.

Motors are unnecessary again since a few days ago. Yesterday, Nuño gave instructions to bind some sail on the main sail mast, because the wind intensity recommended reducing sail. It was not a difficult maneuver, but it was worthy of notice observing the different attire of crew members working on deck, compared to what photographs showed barely two weeks ago. T shirts, shorts and caps have been changed for polar linings, wool hats and water proof clothes. The north Atlantic is not giving, not even in May. But we are coming closer to Azores and after that, to the Mediterranean summer, and their illegal fishing boats.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

Enigma

Saturday, May 21th, 2005 - Eduardo de Ana -

What are the chances of two catamaran ships refueling, one after the other, on an island at one the extrems of the Atlantic? And, what are the chances that both catamarans coincide in the middle of that ocean six days later? And that they have the same destination port?

I am well aware that such data does not have much relevance and will not be recorded anywhere. But you will agree with me that odd coincidences like this can happen, and today, crew members of the Ranger can attest to it.

We established contact with a ship whose sails we could observe in the horizon, stern side, and we identified the ship as the same catamaran that refueled right after us at Saint George’s Harbor, the same ship who set sail the night of the 14^th, Saturday, in direction to Azores, just as we did.

Considering that the Atlantic is the ocean where most maritime activity takes place, the probability of two ships meeting seems to increase (in fact we have sighted several ships on our crossing) but this ocean is also the second largest in extension (occupying 106 million square kilometers), after the Pacific Ocean.

Who knows, we may end up docking side by side in Horta (Azores), it could happen…no?

By the way, the name of the other catamarán is Enigma.

Again, with motors

Friday, May 20th, 2005 - Eduardo de Ana -

After three days of sailing, the wind dropped below 10 knots, and we were forced to use the motors again. We alternate between them every twelve hours so they make the same effort and we can balance the use of fuel in both hulls (in the three days of navigating by sail we saved 600 liters of fuel).

: © OCEANA / Guayo

Throughout the day we have sighted several groups of dolphins (we have not been able to identify them from the distance) and while I write this journal entry we observed a group of delphinids we believe to be False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens).

Indi had a free afternoon and Sole has been in the kitchen for a couple of hours preparing dinner for the entire crew. It is chicken fajitas, which extended its aroma throughout the messroom and part of the cabins.

We have advanced 15º in coordinates of longitude, which means that if we continue traveling to the East, we will have to move the onboard clock one hour ahead. We will do this until we complete the crossing.

We alternate our daily chores with conversation, reading, (book trade is a daily occurrence), revising photographs gatherd throughout the expedition, and playing boardgames.

Nuño, Alicia and Carlos are waiting for me for a card game. We have a couple of hours until my guard duty begins at 12.

Dancing with a blue whale

Thursday, May 19th, 2005 - Xavier Pastor -

The weather started to change. There is a 20 knot wind that allows us to navigate towards the East, at a speed of 8 knots. It is not bad at all. The sea is agitated, the waves swell up, but is manageable. It is not an easy task moving around the ship without having to hold on here and there, or work on the computer, but the two hulls of the catamaran provide for an enviable stability nevertheless. For now, nothing is falling or sliding off, as is so common in ships with conventional hull.

: © OCEANA / Nuño Ramos

This afternoon has been extraordinary. After lunch, I was on my cot when I heard voices and hustling outside, and one of my companions knocking loudly against the glass hatch connecting my cabin to the deck, trying to wake me up. I went upstairs as fast as I could, towards the messroom where I bumped against Bibi, the boatswain, who was coming down yelling: “Xavier, there is a whale!” I went to deck expecting to see a whale at a distance, but instead, I found myself staring at an animal swimming barely one meter from the ship, measuring 13 meters long, emerging just as I was coming up on deck. I had to retreat to get my camera and wait for the successive appearances of the animal. Everyone was on the prowl to get photographs. The whale did not let us down. It seemed to be playing with the Ranger, and we even went on a race. It swam at times by starboard side, stretching almost half the length of the ship or going under the ship, where we could see it through the net extended between the prows of the two hulls. It emerged again and again, at least half dozen times, and accompanied us for at least twenty minutes. It would surface and look at us when it blew air, then it would arch its back and submerge again for three or four minutes. After it tired of the game it disappeared, leaving an audience all wet from the splashes and fascinated by what we just witnessed.

When we recovered from the experience, those of us who took photographs dashed to download the photos onto the computers. The best of them are, no doubt, Nuño’s. Instead of crowding around deck to be as close to the cetacean as possible, which most of us did, Nuño had the sense to remain higher up at the bridge, which gave him the best perspective of the deck area and the surrounding sea. He set his camera on high speed and got an excellent representation of the spectacle we have witnessed.

: © OCEANA / Nuño Ramos

From the start, we realized it was not a minke whale. The absence of white spots on the fins and-especially-the size of the animal, told us that we were not in the presensce of what in English is called a minke, the smallest and most common type of whale. The next logical conclusion was that this was a common whale or fin whale. But there was something amiss there too. It had the tiny dorsal fin, almost vestigial, situated towards the back, the skin clearly covered in grayish speckles, the very flat skull…Meanwhile Indi, Nuño, Carlos, Alice, Bibi, Sole and I checked the cetacean guide books we had oboard and compared the information with the photographs we had just shot and the picture was becoming clear: the Ranger had just had en encounter with a blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), an animal placed at the edge of extinction by whaling ships. There is no evidence if the populations left are recuperating since the International Whaling Commission implemented a moratorium on commercial whale hunting two decades ago. The specimen we just saw was probably a juvenile of the largest animal species on the planet of which only a few hundreds are left among the North Atlantic populations.

: © OCEANA / Nuño Ramos

The sighting presented us with another interesting consideration. When Nuño consulted the nautical chart to register our position during the encounter (36.07 N, 51.32 W), it coincided exactly with the location of the Rockaway Seamount, an underwater mountain towering 6.000 meters from the sea floor, whose summit comes 800 meters from the surface. It is an excellent example of the high seas ecosystems that Oceana and other conservation organizations are intent on protecting from bottom trawling and other aggressions, advocating for the prohibition of these type of activity in vulnerable areas such as these. Was it a coincidence that the blue whale was in that exact area? May be; Whales do not live in one place on a permanent basis; they travel through the oceans following seasonal migration patterns. However, its presence in Rockaway fits in perfectly with our arguments in favor of the protection of underwater seamounts. These are areas whose orography produces upwelling phenomena, or the outcrop of nutrients carried by vertical water currents from the bottom to the surface of the water. In consequence, they become areas populated by dense biodiversity, with great biological richness, making it an oasis in the midst of biologically poorer areas. They are like stop overs along the way, where migrating species find food and where other organisms spend their entire life.

Today was not a bad day at all. No one can be bored here.

Sighting in the high seas

Wednesday, May 18th, 2005 - Xavier Pastor -

The crossing of the Atlantic continues without delay. The sea remains practically calmed, with some moments of wind blowing at 10 to 15 knots which have allowed us today, for the first time, to raise all sails and navigate without the help from the two motors during some time, pushing the Ranger ahead at 6 or 7 knots. The problem was that in order to take advantage of this wind, we had to set course further north than it was convenient for us to reach Azores. At last we have decided to compromise; combining all sails, one of the motors and a more acceptable course to our needs.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

Nevertheless, the excellent visibility of the sea allowed us to see, in detail, the scarce surface marine fauna at a great distance. The density of Portuguese man-of-war (Physalya physalis)- abundant the previous days- has been decreasing; however, we have sighted up to half a dozen marine turtles: loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) of large size, catching the sun on the surface. A minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) swam across the prow of the ship this morning, livening up Alicia’s guard shift.

In this oceanic remoteness, it is impressive to observe the surface level flight of some isolated individuals belonging to different marine bird species. It is hard to imagine the daily routine of these animals, at hundreds of miles from any island or continent, flying in solitary over the waves. The onboard ornithologists: the cook, Jose Indi Peñalver and the captain Nuño Ramos help us identify them: they were a great skua (Catharacta skua), and a long tailed jaeger (Stercorarius longicaudus). We have also sighted a petrel, a small pelagic sea bird, but we were not able to identify the species. And, in Indi’s words: “If I am not 100% sure, I rather not confirm identification”.

But observing marine life is becoming the exception, not the rule. Most of the time, the sea and the sky appear empty and solitary, which becomes more overwhelming when the ocean is calmed, the firmament blue and clear, and visibility, is extraordinary.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

Once in a while find floating objects. Hours after we left Bermudas last Sunday, we passed by a piece of synthetic foam the size of a refrigerator. At a distance, it was impossible to distinguish if it was a raft, or some small container fallen from some ship, that may present some danger for navigation. We have also come across several lost parts from ships. Alicia distinguished an inflatable mat, in perfect shape. Yesterday in the afternoon we saw two fishing buoys abandoned, complete with their identifying flags. We decided to come close and examine it in case it may be floaters from some sort of fishing line that could possibly have thousands of hooks still attached or a synthetic string that can potentially go on causing harm to marine life. Available information on this subject are filled with distressing estimates of the amount of nets and other fishing gear lost at sea, which are made of synthetic and resistant materials that continue killing fish, crustaceans, marine mammals and turtles as “phantom killings” for years.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

For this reason, Carlos, Jose Carlos and Guayo made efforts to haul buoys onboard, with the help of a gaff, while Nuño carefully maneuvered the Ranger to keep the propellers from getting entangled with the fishing gear. However, the floaters were not connected to a synthetic line but to a thick rope that sank into the water, we did not know how deeply. We began to pull it up, only to discover it was about 10 meters long. When we hoisted it onto the deck we brought along an entire ecosystem. The submerged part of the buoys, as well as the rope were covered with common goose barnacle (Lepas anatífera), but there were algae as well and hundreds of tiny crab, similar to those we found a couple of weeks ago in the sargazo sea, before we arrived in Bermudas.

After we took corresponding photographs, we decided to keep one of the floaters onboard (one was in good shape) and throw the rest back in the sea. It did not represent any danger for navigation and yet, it kept thousands of tiny organisms alive, not counting the fish that sought refuge under this small ecosystem and fled horrified when their protection was pulled away.

This afternoon we had a hairstyling session. Mar has brought her “frightening shaving machine” and has left Jose Carlos looking like a pool ball.

" This is an emergency: abandon ship! "

Tuesday, May 17th, 2005 - Eduardo de Ana -

When I was in the middle of one of my daily guard duties, Nuño and Carlos began-by surprise-a drill to abandon ship. They sounded the siren and announced through a megaphone: “Attention, attention, this is an emergency drill, abandon ship, this is an emergency drill, abandon ship, please, leave your posts at once”. In a split second, the entire crew dashed about. Some of them were sleeping, others on deck or in the messroom, but the reaction was instant.

Each crew member has a place and mission assigned in case of an emergency situation that would force us to abandon ship; this may be that the ship begins to flood or a fire breaks onboard the Ranger. It is vital that all crew members are trained in emergency procedures and are able to react efficiently and without panic in a case like this, which we all wish never take place.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

In a hypothetical emergency, the twelve people onboard would occupy the two automatic inflatable life rafts, but each would previously make sure to upload provisions, blankets, water, medications, flare guns, radio beacons, and other means for survival to add to those already stored in the raft. Meanwhile, the first officer’s mission is to radio transmit the international distress message from the ship’s main radio to facilitate rescue operations, and set up other automatic signal devices that would allow search teams to locate the shipwreck position. One of these automatic signal devices is integrated into the satellite transmitter Remote Knowledge that allows those reading these pages, to follow the daily course of the Ranger.

I must be in charge of putting on the life jacket, take some blankets and water, go the life raft located at the prow-starboard side and report at Carlos’s orders.

Once that was over, we met to discuss the procedure and to listen to everyone’s opinions on this emergency drill. The overall evaluation was positive coming from Nuño and Carlos and except for some “aspects to be improved” from our performance, the drill has been satisfactory. Everyone reported to their posts and had rafts fully loaded in 7 minutes. The least satisfactory aspects were related to the clothing and shoes worn by some of the crew members which were considered to be inadequate in carrying out an abandon ship maneuver and this will be improved in future emergency drills. That was it.

It is curious, but, although I knew it was only a drill, I could not help but feel a little anxious, trying to comply with my mission as diligently as possible and at the same time keep an eye on the surroundings to see if there was anything else I could help with.

Back on deck

Monday, May 16th, 2005 - Xavier Pastor -

Last Saturday, April 3, it was three months and a half since I went ashore from the Ranger in Fort Lauderdale (Florida), when the catamaran ended its first leg of the passage through waters of the Pacific in Central America and West Caribbean. That marked the start of a period of maintenance repairs to the Ranger, to prepare for its next crossing through the Atlantic, towards European and African seas. I came back to the ship two days ago, in Bermudas, after an 11 hour flight from Madrid via London, accompanied by Alicia Fraile and Guayo de Ana and after carrying out long and burdensome immigration errands. We relieve Ricardo Aguilar and Paloma Larena, who have lead and reported, respectively, the Oceana crew members throughout the last few weeks while in Florida, Bahamas and in the south of the Sargasso Sea.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Now we have been sailing for twenty four hours since we left Saint George Harbor, with an extended sea ahead of us and long rolling wave movement, but practically still water. The next firm land we see, if everything goes well, will be the Portuguese islands of Azores in two weeks time. The Atlantic has been treating us well, for the moment, although the most experienced seafaring members onboard would prefer more excitement. It feels good to be on deck once more, “on the road again”.

The time spent without much to do except to keep the ship tidy and safely sailing or helping around with routine chores everyone is assigned to, allows us to reflect on those things that occupied our time during the last hectic period spent on land-and in the air.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

Although the Ranger’s expedition through various seas is one of Oceana’s main projects, the truth is hat many other things occur simultaneously in other fronts of the organization. In fact, since our ship left Los Angeles in January, those or our companions who continue working from their desks won a major achievement when the United States government banned bottom trawling practices in practically all waters around Alaska, an area covering one million square meters, comparable to the size of China. The governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger has implemented similar prohibition in the waters under his jurisdiction, while at the same he has implemented strict regulations against contamination from cruise ships operating in his state. Democrat representatives have also introduced a bill in Congress that, if approved, would make it mandatory for all cruise ships, these floating urban centers, to implement water treatment systems, following similar measures implemented on Royal Caribbean cruise ships after Oceana advocated and achieved such results.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the European Parliament has approved-almost unanimously- the proposal advocated by Oceana to make voluntary or negligent oil discharges into the ocean be considered a criminal act and violations would not only be penalized with millionaire fines but with prison terms for captains and shipowners or proprietors of ships found guilty of violations. Even insurance companies that protect those companies would be implicated. We must not forget that those rutinary spills-produced during ballast removal operations or during bilge or sesspit cleaning-represent three times, or more, the annual number of all oil spill incidents like those of the Prestige, Erika or the Exxon Valdez.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

On other levels, last April, Oceana organized a two -day International Symposium on the Oceans, which gathered some of the most eminent specialists on the sea from around the world. It was inaugurated by UNESCO’s former director, Federico Mayor Zaragoza and the closing remarks were delivered by the Executive Director of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), and the former German minister Klaus Toepfer. In support of Bettina Alonso, who organized this event on our behalf, I had to exchange my waterproof clothing and my life jacket, for the appropriate suit and tie to represent Oceana in the symposium.

In Madrid, I met with congress representatives from different political parties to collaborate in the preparation of initiatives to present in Parliament, and try to influence the Government positions on fishing. The many progressive initiatives from the Zapatero administration on the social and economic fronts do not move at all to the side of fisheries issues. The powerful lobby carried out by Spanish shipowners continues to hold a powerful control on these issues. Whether under dictatorship, democracy, under UCD, PSOE or PP administration, it is the same. This is how, without batting an eye, the Director General of Fishing Resources Fernando Curzio, from the National Congress on the Environment answered to a question from an assistant: “I have to say to whomever asked this question, that in regards to fisheries issues, the government policy of the PSOE is the same as it was under the PP”. And that was that.

These have been intense weeks of contacts with other organizations and gathering data to prepare the next phase of the Ranger expedition, in addition to preparation of reports on results obtained and future projects. But we will leave these details for some other day. Now, I must be on deck again.

En route to Azores

Sunday, May 15th, 2005 - Eduardo de Ana -

: © OCEANA / Guayo

At then in the morning, everything is ready to set sails.

Nuño has gone to customs to pick up the documentation we got when the Oceana Ranger arrived in Saint George’s Harbour in Bermuda, then on to gather supplies like flare guns to signal in case of emergency. We were required to leave a deposit upon entering to the country and submit a list of names of new crew members.

Once we passed the last buoy on the channel, Carlos gave new crew members instructions about safety measures onboard. He told us what each of us had to do in case of emergency, how to act, under whose orders we would be, and where to go in case of abandoning ship. Some “veterans” also participated in this talk, since it does never too redundant to know this type of information.

For this end, by the chart and communications table there si a diagram of the ship, showing the location of life rafts extintors, life savers, life jackets, drinking water, etc.

: © OCEANA / Guayo

He also explained to us the procedure for night guard duty. He went over security measures to follow if a crew member leaves the bridge area of the ship to circulate on deck, how to signal and act in case someone falls over board, and the use of life jackets and harnesses to move about the ship safely, hooking them up to the life lines (these are cables situated along the deck area and they are used to move about during rough weather conditions, reducing the risk of being sent into the sea by a violent swing of the ship or by a wave hitting deck).

We have 1.800 miles ahead of us before we arrive in Azores. This is only the beginning.

The "bustling" Ranger

Saturday, May 14th, 2005 - Eduardo de Ana -

It is funny how human behavior can resemble that of animals.

In my first day onboard the Ranger, I have the feeling that I have been to an anthill. Ever since Nuño and Carlos sounded the bugle at 7 this morning, the crew, like “working ants” began to take care of the tasks assigned to them previously.

: © OCEANA / Guayo

Indi and Mar went ashore to buy the supplies we need for the Atlantic crossing, not without taking a prior inventory of the provisions we already had onboard and taking notes on things they need to buy: bread, powder milk, rice, flour, canned goods, fruit, pasta, potatoes and a long etcetera. (In total, it took four dinghy trips fully loaded to bring the supplies to the ship)

Sole, Bibi and Jose went to the laundromat, with the crew’s linens, some pants, t shirts, etc.

The rest of the crew remained on the Ranger, preparing the last touches before tomorrow’s departure, en route to Azores. We refueled, loaded up drinking water, cleaned up the refrigerator and freezer and placed small belongings from each of us in the messroom (common area of the ship). These were some of our chores.

It is interesting to see the synchronization at work among sailors onboard. At the captain’s order, each one knows perfectly where to go, how and when to act. For instance, the maneuver of hoisting anchors resembles a perfectly designed choreography which is accomplished without a hitch. Nuño was minding the rudder; Bibi and Carlos at the anchor wheel, making sure the chain goes in place, Alicia (the new sailor who just joined the expedition) David and Jose were on the lookout for the anchor position and informed Nuño of the location. At this time, Xavier joined us to help remove the mud that came stuck to the chain.

: © OCEANA / Xavier Pastor

But I saw the true anthill onboard when the inflatable rubber rafts (dinghy) began to arrive loaded with provisions. Instantly, a line of people was formed, transporting boxes from starboard side to the kitchen. Each of us took one box, moved it to the messroom, placed the contents on the table and went back for another, not without taking back the empty box so the dinghy would take it back to shore and leave it there on its next trip (carton brings many problems with insects and humidity to the ship, and on shore it can be recycled). Once we had all provisions onboard, it was time to store them and this time, following the cook’s orders (Indi), the crew placed things in place, as if it was a game of Tetris.

: © OCEANA / Guayo

Right now, the “Ranger anthill” is ready to prepare dinner and in a couple of hours, the little ants will go to sleep. Tomorrow, we will have a wake up call again at 7:00, to eat breakfast and set sails for Azores.

Ready to cross the Atlantic

Friday, May 13th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

Today, three new crew members joined the Ranger to “commit” the crossing of the Atlantic. They are Xavier Pastor, Eduardo de Ana and Alicia Fraile. Xavier, a marine biologist, is the Director of the Oceana office in Europe, from where he spearheaded the Transoceanic Expedition, with enthusiastic support from Steven and Annie MacAllister, owners of the catamaran we are sailing in now. Xavier had already been onboard during March and April, in the previous leg of the crossing, which included Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras. This is a territory he is very familiar with, because of his prior work implementing the Mar Viva Foundation , an organization that works in defense of illegal fishing, out of those countries.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Eduardo de Ana "Guayo" is responsable for Oceana’s European webpage. Thanks to his work at the Madrid office, thousands of people around the world may be reading this diary at this very moment, enjoying the underwater videos filmed by Mar Mas and the extraordinary photos taken by Houssine Kaddachi, Sole Esnaola and other companions from the crew, throughout different steps of the expedition. Among them, I can name Sandy Mayson and Maribel López (who preceeded me in writing this journal), Annie Compton, Juan Pablo Camblor and Ines García Fungairiño, from ZOEA , Jose Indi Peñalver, Aitor Iturraspe, Nuño Ramos y so many others who will join the crew of the Ranger through this crossing.

The third new member who just came onboard in this crew turnover in Bermudas is Alicia Fraile, expert sailor and an old friend from prior experiences in defense of the environment, working onboard Greenpeace’s ships, like the sailboat Zorba. In addition to being Oceana volunteers, Alicia and Jose Peñalver are founding members of the Sociedad de Historia Natural del Mar and active members in the group Ecovoz

There was crew turn over at the Ranger, because the crossing is long and at times, exhausting. Some members, lilke Mar and David, have been onboard since much before the catamaran officially left Los Angeles, last January 17^th. Others, like Sole or Houss, are also record keepers in permanency onboard. Ricardo Aguilar and I go back to the Oceana office in Madrid to resume on terra firma the work on Research and Projects, and I will resume work in the area of Communication. From Madrid we will follow closely the Ranger’s course, however, this time we will not be unable to keep the computer steady because of the surf movements, and we will not have to struggle to keep our clothes dry every time Carlos Perez, the first officer or the sailor Bibi Alvarez took us ashore on the auxiliary raft.

: © OCEANA / Jose Peñalver

Before saying goodbye to the Ranger, I still have a lesson on knots to take from Bibi. No one can become a true sailor without knowing at least four of them: the square knot, figure 8 knot, clove hitch, and bowline. As the rope expert that she is, this sailor from Combados is an “artist” at handling knots. (In marine terms, we do not say “lines” but the precise term is “ropes”). The only line on a ship may be hanging from a clock or it may be strings we tie our shoes with. At the same time, ropes can be made of fiber, synthetic material, polyester, nylon, etc. Their names vary in relation to their purpose: halyard; used to raise or lower a sail, escotas; which run along the edges, used for changing the sails; and the moorings. “The important thing is-she explains-that the knot must be strong, resistant, and be able to be undone later, because the nitre will.. “azoca”. The marine term Bibi uses means that the nitre tightens the knots and then it is practically impossible to untie them, which would be inoperative on a ship.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

The figure 8 knot is a very simple knot to make and it is used to anchor. The square knot, to tie two ropes of the same “thickness”, that is, of the same type, because-the teacher insists “there are non compatible knots if done with a different rope”. Perhaps the most useful of all knots is the clove hitch. It can be useful to tie the boat upon docking and also for hoisting a sail. The bowline knot for instance, is very useful to tie in the protections that run along the ship to keep it from hitting against the docks or against other ships when docking in tight spots (when the boats dock side by side). “But choosing the type of knot to use will depend on the purpose and where they must be tied, the type of vessel, the speed needed for the operation or, for instance, on the tension the rope will be subjected to”.

I will take some rope with me to Madrid to practice what I have learned in this very interesting lesson, which I hope will not the last onboard the Ranger. From Bermudas, the Oceana Expedition will proceed en route to European waters next Sunday, arriving in Azores, if the winds are favorable, at the beginning of June. The Oceana crew members still have another 4.000 miles of navigation ahead of them, equally tense and exciting as it has been so far. When our catamaran reaches its final destination in the Mediterranean, it will have left a trail of 11,000 nautical miles behind.

Sea Cucumbers, Starfish and Sea Urchins

Thursday, May 12th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Since the Oceana expedition arrived in Bermuda, the weather has been dreadful, with winds of 30 knots, rain and two meter waves. Yesterday we went out to see if we could go on our first dive, as the wind had decreased to 10 knots and the water did not see too murky.

“On our way to the reef area, while on the auxiliary raft, we stop to film a Portuguese Man-of-war (Physalia physalis). We had just reached our spot, when we found almost at surface level, at one meter deep a juvenile specimen of loggerhead turtle (Caretta carettta) two or three years old. Its carapace may have measured 30 to 50 centimeters long, similar to the size of turtles from the Azores area; with the Gulf Current in their favor, they could be there in 10 days” Ricardo tells us, at the end of three hours of intense work which he shared with the divers, Mar, Houss, Sole and Bibi. The latter was in charge of the auxiliary boat.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

At the reef we found an abundance of grooved brian coral (Diploria labyrinthiformis), porous coral (Porites astreoides) Gorgonian Symbionts (Symbiodinium spp), and some gorgonians (Plexaura spp and Plexaurela spp). The bicolor parrotfish (Cetoscarus bicolor) were huge, measuring at least half meter. Our companions also saw many yellow boxfish and labridaes. “But the most spectacular aspect is that it was overflowing with Holothuria (Isostichopus badionotus) animals that belong to the equinoderm group and therefore, close relatives of starfish and sea urchins” All these species are organized in geometrical forms”. In order for us to understand the symmetry among equinoderms, my Zoology teacher gave us a very visual example. She said: “Imagine a starfish. If it closed its legs in the shape of the orange slices, it becomes like a sea urchin, and if you stretch it as if it was made of plasticine, you would have a Holothuria” Indi told us this later while he cooked dinner.

The Holothuria is also known as Sea Cucumber, for their elongated shape. Another distinctive characteristic are its tiny feet which allow it to move along the sea floor. The sea cucumbers sighted by our Oceana divers had three rows of feet (on both sides and in the middle), arranged in the shape of a mechanical caterpillar. Unfortunately, the Holothurias are also under exploitation as edible species. Those found in Asia and in the Galapagos, just to name two examples, are being severe extermination on the part of pirate fleets, because they are considered “delicatessen”. If there is any exploitation of holothurias in Bermudas, it must be under tight regulation.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

The Mediterranean holothurias do no have spikes, as do their Bermuda relatives. They live in surface waters, at depths of four to twelve meters. Some of my expedition companions report having seen them on the beach, at a short distance from swimmers.

Thickness matters ... and very much

Wednesday, May 11th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

Divers lose heat very quickly underwater. Neoprene diving suits are designed with specific thickness, to be worn in different dive areas and depending on water temperature. There are long and short suits. For instance, diving in a reef area in a short diving suit is not recommendable, because of the many stinging animal found there, such as jelly fish, corals, sea urchins….and neoprene can also serve as a shield.

In todays dive-planned after we have been anchored for seven days in Saint George, because of strong winds that forced us to heading here before we had planned- Oceana divers will wear 7 millimeter-thick diving suits, as it is cold, even when the sun is up. “In Bermuda waters during this time of the year, five millimeter diving suits are not thick enough”…indicates Sole, one of the divers from ZOEA who is participating on our Oceana expedition. They wear these suits regularly, which are also “wet” suits, because in the process of submersion, a fine layer of water is caught between the suit and the skin. Since this layer of water does not circulate, it warms up and acts as a thermo-regulator”… Sole goes on explaining. There are other type of diving suits called “dry suits” which divers wear on top of their regular clothes and a third intermediate type, called semi-dry.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Once the suit type is selected, diving shoes and hood are two basic items in the diving gear. The diving shoes are made of neoprene with sole, which facilitate fitting the fins, in addition to serving as protection from cold temperature; the hood also serves this purpose. Mar, Oceana camera person prefers to wear a hankerchief on her head, like a pirate. Today she is just launching a brand new one. “I only wear those given to me by friends, they bring me luck” she says. In effect, she has been lucky. While filiming a Portuguese Man-o-War (Physalia physalis) barely a hand’s length away and while absorbed in her activity, the animal’s tentacles coiled around the case of her camera, so tighthly that she had to remove it with the back of her safety knife. Houss, who is also in charge of photography, also lends Mar support while underwater, this time he kept an eye on her, and when things started to get out of hand, he helped her separate from the animal.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

The diving glasses are, of course, an essential element. Choosing one obeys to very personal needs. Mar’s for instance, are optically suited, since she suffers from myopia. But despite her myopia and particular sensibility underwater, Mar films astounding, amazing images.

The gloves also serve as protection from the cold and possible accidents underwater, but they take away sensibility. Houss and Sole, for instance, do not wear them. But Mar-this is another of the unique traits-does. I notice two large holes on her right glove’s index finger and thumb. It is no that they just ripped, no: “I ripped them on purpose, to gain sensibility on my fingers to better handle the camera”. Today, her fingers were peeking out of the gloves, impatient before diving. Mar had not filmed underwater since the Bahamas incident, when the camera humidity alarm went off and the camera flooded.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Ricardo comments: “Carlos, even if we take the large dinghy, lets have the small one ready in case someone comes out of water feeling cold”. He looks after the divers. He will do some snorkeling, wearing two diving suits, a long and a short suit, to be prepared. Before submersion, as always, he and Mar exchange information.

- The wind is calming down once again.

- And according to the forecast, it will be like this until Saturday.

But I better tell what happened during the dive tomorrow.

Incoming cruise ship!

Tuesday, May 10th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

: © OCEANA / Nuño Ramos

When Carlos pointed me to the immense cruise ship that was coming in through the Saint George Channel, my first reaction was to run to get my camera and go on deck to take photos. As so did my crew companions, including Nuño, the captain. Outside, the colossal ship from Norwegian Cruise Line advanced slowly, while diminute tourists looked around from the railings on deck. They were oblivious of course, to the harm these pleasure trips cause the environment and anaware of the dramatic moments we were about to live: the cruise ship crashed against one of the sail boats anchored at the bay and, loosing control of the ship, its trajectory pointed directly at the Ranger. As Carlos says,”to be close to land is dangerous. Fortunately, our crew has behaved very well, reacting to the emergency fast, like cats”

“Let’s get out of here, now, lets go!” is the alarm call from Nuño, the captain. Carlos, the first officer realized the cruise ship had caught one of the sail boats by the stern and was dragging it after smashing into it and getting the sailboat’s mast and takle trapped. “I did not see how it happened, but it crashed into the sailboat and is dragging it. It may be that the chain from the anchor is cought with the cruise shp’s propellers. Afterwards, the transatlantic lost control” In seconds, the situation was upgraded to maximum risk for all occupants of the sailboat. And it posed some risk for a large number of boats anchored in Saint George as well, including the Ranger. The first thing we did was place a call to the cruise ship from the catamaran’s radio to warn it “Norwegian Majesty, you have trappede a sailboat and you are dragging it hitched to your stern, this is an emergency call, you are dragging a boat”

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

If we had been able to contemplate the Saint George bay from above, we would have seen a sudden dance of vessels trying to escape as swiftly as possible from the trajectory of the “monster” that was coming at them out of control, pushed by winds of 75 km per hour. We also hoisted the chains and if the situation had become any worse, we would have had to abandon the anchor and chain marked with a buoy and a beacon to come and get it later. Nuño reacted with excellent reflexes as he is accustomed to. Those were certainly moments of tension, but the crew has held their posts with swiftness. “Everyone lets veer the anchor!” “Everyone help hoist the anchooooor!” those were the captain’s orders from the control bridge. “Keep in mind that from the control bridge he cannot see the angle or the tension exerted by the anchor...”

Nuño needed to know in which direction the chain was pulling to ease the tension at the reel that rolls it in, allowing the motor to move forward. Also, during today’s maneuver to forcibly escape from the cruise ship’s path, Indi and Jose Carlos had to help hoist the chain by muscle force. “A dangerous operation that must be done with maximum care, because if the chain had given a jolt, it could have shattered someone’s hand” explains Carlos.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

While the “Norwegian Majesty” was literally coming at us, the waters around it were changing colors; they were a very light shade of blue, surely due to the underwater current generated by the motors in full force trying to avoid further collisions. The occupants of the sailboat were very fortunate, because “they could have been dragged under the hull …they must have been able to set the chain loose or it broke off, they accelerated their motor and went off, but they left with serious damages, I saw one of their mast ropes bent and all their rigging apparel turned about”.

Cruise ships are authentic floating cities that bring great contamination to our oceans. Close to 300 cruise ships that navigate on the waters around the world generate more than 14 million tons of residues. Oceana has worked incessantly until reaching an agreement from one the most important cruise ship companies in the world, Royal Caribbean to implement an advanced system of residual water treatment on its entire fleet. This is the first step to implement regulation to this mastodon fleet.

Coral shelters

Monday, May 9th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

The coral reef surrounding Bermuda acts as a protective circle to the island and its inhabitants. First, in a physical manner, sheltering the island from storms, as this ecosystem acts as a barrier where waves break off. “In fact, the most superficial corals are the most damaged after a hurricane”, Ricardo confirms. Clothed by this impressive and beautiful natural barrier-also a source of life and food-the people of Bermuda take shelter under a second protective layer: their coral houses.

As we approached the island, apart from observing the undulating aspect of the landscape-because of its rolling hills-we noticed immense white spots that were scattered around the island. It could not be snow; we thought it could be some type limestone…Now we know the reason for that color: all houses in Bermuda have the same kind of stepped roof, of an intense white color. It could have been lime, like that covering the walls of houses in the Spanish south, but this is actually coral. We learned this from Cubbit Smith, a Bermuda resident whose ancestors from this island go back more than 300 years. He says it with pride and, it also appears in his presentation card.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

“All Bermuda residents are forced by regulation to coat the roofs of their houses with coral plates, because this is a highly poriferous material, and this is how they get the water they needd to wash dishes, cook and bathe. Water from rain is gathered in containers, and passed through several purifying filters” explains Cubbit, farmer and occasional taxi driver. Ricardo brings to our attention the fact that, like the people of Bermuda, Polinesians also use the same material to cover their homes.

In the particular case of Bermuda, the connexion between corals and survival of its people is beyond obvious. “The coral reef is a guarantee of life for us, because it protects us. It also acts as a kind of “nursery” for juveniles of commercial species, so it is a food source. It is also a source of water; without it, we could not sustain a stable population of 70.000 people, apart from tourists”, Cubbit continues explaining. We have seen our occasional guide, enthusiastic of the flora and fauna of his island, walking around while we visited the mangrove swamp area. After a lively conversation, he offered to take us back to Saint George and on our way back to the Ranger, we ponder on the important role coral reefs play in sustaining life in the oceans.

Among Anoles, Cardinals and Great Kaskadees

Sunday, May 8th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

Yesterday night, the wind and rain hit the Ranger’s deck area again. Nuño commented that the wind speed was at least 30 knots and it is expected to blow with the same intensity today. “Naturally, today we cannot dive either, but it is a sunny day, so we can explore some nature parks on the coast. The best thing for us is to take advantage of daylight, before the weather makes things worse than they are…”Ricardo makes the decision to go to Spittal Pond natural reserve, a bird’s nature sanctuary that our naturalist cook José Peñalver cannot miss. The captain gives him a day off and Indi gets ready to go.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

As we did in Bahamas, the Oceana Ranger crew gets immersed in the world of birds, whose song could be heard throughout Spittal Pond. That is the name that Bermuda residents give to coastal ponds separated from the sea by a strip of volcanic rock that reveal the origins of the island. In some parts, this separation barely reaches 100 meters wide. In that place, we documented a rather strange mix of tropical and European fauna, since Bermuda is in the middle of nowhere. We confirmed this when we sat on a small cliff. On one side, tropicbirds (Phaeton lepturus) fly over the coral reef, while on the other, glossary ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) and Moorhens searched for food in the interior ponds. A multitude of great kiskadees can also be seen (an invasive species) cardinals, even goldfinches, and ouzels and blackbirds, the latter species, was introduced from Europe.

: © OCEANA / Mar Mas

The Oceana team I am accompanying is formed by Ricardo, Mar and Indi. We discovered anoles (Anolis grahami), moving among the branches of a tree. We have in front of us, one of the three reptile species found in Bermuda. Their aspect is similar to a lizard, but larger; it poses for our camera, with apparent ease. Once in a while, its throat swelled up, displaying a striking orange color, hidden from our sight until then. We were enthralled, contemplating the spectacle. “They do that to mark their territory and also to attract the females” whispered one of the experts. At that point, the reptile abruptly jumped, to expel another, smaller reptile, off his territory. Excited- or scared- the assaulted party changed color, assuming a bright greenish tone, and quickly abandoned the area, taking refuge on the tree trunk.

: © OCEANA / Mar Mas

We were also very lucky to see a Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias) not far from where a Glossary Ibis (Plegadis flacinellus) was introducing its beak in the mud. But what attracted our attention significantly is the bright color of cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis), with its intense red, a prominent tuft, and black face. The Great Kiskadees (Pitangus sulphuratus) display an intense sulfur yellow around its breast area, and their graceful black and white striped hoods are visible everywhere. This is an invading species, introduced in the 1950’s from Trinidad, to control the reptilian population that was in turn, exterminating beetle species. But as it happens at times, instead of solving a problem, the Great Kiskadees have become a bona fide plague.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

We also sighted Moorhens (Gallinula chlorophus). Mar enjoyed filming one of them who took time for a bath. When it came out to dry on some branches, we observed their feet, with very long toes, which they use to walk over lacustrine vegetation. A little later, while Mar and Ricardo contemplated the small cliff, Indi came to tell us, excited, that he saw a pair of small Common Ground-doves (Columbina passerine). “The first time I saw them was in Cuba. It is interesting because this is the smallest species of dove in the world, just a little bigger than a sparrow. The second part of its scientific name, passerine, comes from “passer” which would translate into something like “little dove bird”.

We are back in the Ranger now. We left behind a beach where we observed a group of Turnstones (Arenaria interpres). This is an arenaria species. “There is no competition for resources among arenaria species within a same area; this is in relation to the length of their beaks. Depending on whether theirs is a long or shorter beak, they are able to access different types of invertebrates living in in the mud”, explains Indi.

Also flying around, we saw a Night Heron (Nyctanassa violacea). This species went extinct in the island and was reintroduced in the 1970’s to control land crab populations.

Pioneers in protecting turtles

Saturday, May 7th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

7:00 a.m. The Ranger remains anchored at the bay of Saint George. This first day in Bermuda is dark; rain and wind were pounding hard. Nuño, Carlos and Ricardo meet to analyze the situation and organize the work for the members of the expedition. The fact we were anchored instead of docked by the port further complicates plans, because we depend on auxiliary boats to go ashore. One thing is clear: due to bad weather, today we are not diving.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

10:30 a.m. We have been assigned our chores for the day. Three work teams were formed. One, included Nuño, Carlos and Bibi will remain onboard the catamaran. Another group is formed by Mar, Houss, Sole, David and indi will go to Saint George to find a place to connect to internet, a market place to re-stock on provisions, a Laundromat and showers (we have a small container with water onboard, to wash ourselves, if the climate allows it; but after five days of sailing, we melt at the thought of getting under a warm shower). The third group, of which I am part, together with Ricardo and Jose Carlos, will go to Hamilton, the capital city, to see what supplies we can find. Equipped with raincoats, water proof pants and life jackets, Bibi is in charge of taking us to shore in one of the boats.

11:00 a.m. We wait impatiently for the weather to improve in the next few days, because we have planned a series of dives to document corals and phanerogams, sea horses and anyone of the numerous ships that were sunken centuries ago near these coasts. That is the case of the Spanish passenger ship “Cristobal Colon” that sank at the beginning of last century. In order to accomplish these tasks, it is important that the members of this expedition are able to move about freely through this island. But we soon found out with a dash of desperation that it is impossible to rent a car in Bermuda. Car rental companies simply do not exist here. Most residents of Bermuda-about 70.000 people live in the island- use buses, taxis and scooters as transportation modes.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

12:15 a.m. Bus number 1 takes three quarters of an hour to get to Hamilton, a municipality filled with banks and shops that sell clothing, perfumes and brand name merchandising, in the midst of the week- end rush. We are lucky, because at that time, the clouds began to clear and the sun struggled to come through. The people of Bermuda live from tourism, international business and finances. It is said that the first person to see the island was a Spanish captain named Juan de Bermudez, in 1505. But it was not until a century later, after the English vessel “Sea Venture” shipwrecked in 1609, when the English began colonization of the island.

Bermuda has been a pioneer in environmental protection issues. Bermuda residents were possibly the first to protect marine turtles already in the 18^th century. Currently, they have nature reserves and protected areas, but they also have some ecological problems to resolve: they are starting to implement farms designed to recuperate clams, crustaceans and other species that were depleted by commercial overexploitation.

At the crater of the volcano

Friday, May 6th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

12:30 a.m. Bermuda emerges magnificent in the middle of the North Atlantic, like a wavy line of rolling, green hills. There it stands, at a place with nothing around for hundreds of miles- except deep waters reaching down 4.000 and 5.000 meters- its sighting brought comfort to the Ranger’s expedition members. It has been five days of travel since we left Bahamas, as a storm began to form and threatened to reach the catamaran, keeping us from carrying out the dives we planned for the Sargasso Sea, at least for the moment. Quite frankly, we all look forwards to going ashore.

Although many people know it as the Bermuda archipelago, its residents just call it Bermuda, as if it were only one, indivisible island. And it is. Observing the nautical chart our captain uses, we can see it quite well; Bermuda is an almost perfect circle. The southern part is elevated, forming a figure in the shape of a hook, measuring about 30 square kilometers, while the north side is submerged and forms an immense coral reef. In the middle of this gigantic ring are superficial waters; outside of the circle, the deep ocean.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Bermuda is the crater of an ancient underwater volcano that emerged in the Pleistocene era, during inter- glaciar periods. It is part of an underwater mountain range; several mountain tops are submerged, such as those called Plantagenet Ridge, situated further south, rising 5.000 meters from the sea floor and barely 40 or 60 meters from the water surface. Now, let’s look at a simple map of Bermuda. What we see is a succession of different islands (the emerged areas), joined together through bridges.

For years it was called Devil’s Island. The writer Mark Twain said it was “the smallest, longest place in the world”. It is also the northernmost spot (32 degrees north latitude) reached by the distribution of tropical mangroves and coral reefs. This is under the mitigating effects of Gulf currents which produce a more tempered climate.

: © OCEANA / Nuño Ramos

The Ranger arrives in Bermuda through the island of Saint George. We first go to customs, to do the corresponding administrative errands and after docking, some of us go ashore on the auxiliary boat. At the town hall square, there are some artifacts on display, old torture gadgets used to publicly penalize criminals. There is a British ambiance in the island, in the houses, the people and traditions. Over 300 years after the first English people came here (victims of a shipwreck), Bermuda continues to be a territory dependent from the United Kingdom, debating between following independence partisans or continue to subscribe to Her Majesty’s Gracious Crown.

The Sargasso by the prow side!

Thursday, May 5th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

The Sargasso sea…. It is so diferent from any other place on earth that it may well be considered a definite geographic region ". By Rachel Carson.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

“Land on sight!” after months of navigation, Christopher Columbus’s caravels began to encounter large clusters of yellow brownish algae, on which small crabs and crustaceans of all types floated. The Great Admiral thought that, at last, they had reached land. His calculation was erroneous. They were in the Sargasso Sea, at more than 1.000 miles from the American continent. The Portuguese named it that way because of the immense accumulation of algae floating adrift for kilometers after kilometers, it reminded them of a common grape from their country, the “salgazo”.

The Sargasso Sea occupies 2.000 square meters, extending almost from the US coast, to the proximity of Azores, and it is estimated that it may contain around six million tons of these algae. These include two predominant species: Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans. Unlike other similar algae from the Mediterranean or the European Atlantic Sea, these two types of Sargasso are not attached to the substrate, but live exclusively adrift. In order to float, they use small capsules filled with oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The Ranger is now traveling through the south side, where algae density is lower.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Throughout the Oceana crossing towards Bermuda, in addition to our sightings of fascinating Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia physalis), we have also seen clusters of Sargasso, but for now they are a bit small in size and expansion. We gathered some samplings using a net similar to those used to catch butterflies, but bigger. Upon examining them in detail, Ricardo and Indi discovered a colony of crabs, sheltered between the algae, the biggest of them was no larger than 3 centimeters…a little prawn measuring half a centimeter also shows up, squirming desperate to go back in the water.

Because of the large concentration of life forms and nutrients found in the Sargasso, great numbers of turtles abound in this place. They arrive just after they are born in the nesting beaches of Central America, Florida and Bahamas, to spend what is known as “the lost year” of turtles, before they begin their long migration. They take advantage of the Gulf current to reach the Sargasso Sea and from here, they continue to the European Atlantic and Mediterranean seas. Some 400.000 of them will be captured accidentally by the swordfish fisheries in the Mediterranean.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

“Sargasso Sea on sight!” We are very close, but again, because of dire weather predictions, the Ranger must change its plans once more. At 4:20 pm on Thursday May 5, the captain instructs the first officer to change course. Crew members reset the direction of the mizzen sail and the jib is deployed. We temporarily postpone our crossing towards the heart of the Sargasso Sea. Now we set sails for Bermuda. According to Nuño’s calculations, we should arrive there on Friday after midday. The transoceanic expedition will take refuge there from the storm that is approaching and that will reach its maximum magnitude in the next few days.

Portuguese man-of-war, beautiful and dangerous

Wednesday, May 4th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

The Portuguese man-of-wars we have begun to see are fascinating and dangerous organisms, abundant in these waters in the Bermuda Triangle, rich in Sargasso. Today, their presence has decreased a little, but once in a while someone on the Ranger still sounds the alarm: man-o-war starboard side!”, man-o-war by the prow!”… We see them pass, drifting at the mercy of the wind and surf. They make up a diminutive fleet of living ships, barely 30 centimeters in “length”: their sails are transparent and blowing in the wind and when the sun rays illuminate them, they create iridescence of a thousand hues…

“Portuguese man-of-war, have similar aspect to jelly fish and belongs to the order of the Siphonophora”. As usual, Ricardo contributes with a scientific note. “But unlike jelly fish, each Portuguese man-o-war is not an isolated individual, but a colony. It is an organism made up of multiple individuals who specialize in different functions in order to survive. Some of them act as sails, others as buoys, and others become long tentacles, to grasp nutrients with them. Their tentacles can reach three meters long, but when they travel, they retract them"

Therefore, we can see ahead of time, that when the Oceana divers submerge in the Sargasso area to document the site, the Portuguese man-o-war will be one more added complexity, because the sting from it is highly dangerous. Depending on the size of the animal, it can produce allergic reactions and even cardiac arrest…

When the Portuguese man of war senses a living being near, its tentacles go into action, shooting a stinging filament that plunges into the skin and injects venom. They feed on larvae and eggs of small orgninsms, like jelly fish do. But they are not food for anyone. May be for turtles.

Mar, like a modern Penelope

Tuesday, May 3th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

In the open sea, at 350 miles from Bahamas, it was a remarkable sight to see flying fish jumping out of the water and glide over the surface, moving their fins so fast that they resembled a hummingbird. This morning, a tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus) came to visit, and returned in the afternoon. It is a beautiful bird of elongated tail, which would fly around the catamaran and then glide over it, as if looking for a place to land. Indi, the naturalist, consulted his species guide book to give us further information. Tropicbirds are called rabijuncos in Spanish, because their tails resemble a flexible plant called junco. They have relatively short legs, which makes it difficult for them to walk on land. This is why they go straight to their nests that they build over cliffs or ledges, from where they resume flight, being able to travel hundreds of miles into the ocean. How lucky! After this adult bird visit, a juvenile came to around. In this case, the feathers of the juvenile’s tail were fewer. In addition to the tropicbirds, we saw some petrels (Hydrobatidae), an exclusively a marine bird.

Now we are sailing with “choppy seas” comments Carlos, the first officer “and the foam that forms around the crest of the waves when they break are disappearing. It is a sign that calm is coming. Our navigation becomes very slow, advancing barely five knots, so Carlos, who was on guard duty at that point, decided to lower the sails and switch on the motors. The captain, who was resting, came out see what was going on.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Mar Mas, the camera person, takes advantage of navigation time to edit the film footage from the last few dives. She does this on a small makeshift desk in her cabin. Ricardo, one of the naturalists onboard, analyzes the underwater images with her. I tried to accompany them for a while, but I had to run out when I noticed the first symptoms of nausea.

Like a modern Penelope, every time Mar finishes a diving session, she organizes a “mini video editing room” in her cabin, which is located in the larboard hull. Afterwards, this operation has to be dismantled, otherwise she could not sleep. She spends hours and hours in the editing process, working in a reduced space measuring only one meter long by one meter wide. She uses a folding table which she places by her bed. In the daytime, she covers the hatch with a blanket to keep the sun from coming in, and her area has conditioning working to keep the equipment from overheating. When Mar edits her spectacular images, she has to wear clothes with warm lining and a hat that cover even her ears, it is that cold there. During this time, Indi cannot connect the “cooler” (refrigerator) where he keeps the sodas, because it is not convenient to overload the generator on the Ranger. Once in a while Mar comes on deck to take a break “And to see if I thaw out along the way”

She carefully keeps the video cassettes in a box with locks, with waterproof double O ring locking system and silicone bags to preserve them from humidity. Until now, and since the Expedition began, she has more than 70 tapes in Mini DV format, each one is an hour long. Most of them correspond to diving sessions. She is now almost finished with the film footage from Florida, from weeks ago and she is now going to start editing the Bahama footage. She has so much work ahead of her that the captain has decided to excuse her from guard duty. On this subject, my shift has been changed; it is now from 3 to 6, accompanying Carlos.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

Mar Mas and the photographer Houssine Kaddachi make a first rate team. Houssine is French, 28 years old, of Tunician descent. He not only carries out his work shooting underwater photos, but he also assists Mar in doing her filming. They met three years ago when Mar traveled to Indonesia to film a documentary for the gobernment of that country. He was one of the divemasters assigned to her. Underwater, Mar needs a strong, capable person, able to endure holding the lighting equipment (“the Kowalski”) for hours at a time and even holding her in delicate and difficult balance maneuvers to keep from scaring off species. Houssine is not only a perfect technical assistant, but the very life of the producer depends on him. “He is my life insurance, what else can I say. We complement each other very well underwater and that is very important. I concentrate on recording and although I must be well aware of the surroundings, there are times when that is not possible. Houssine is always looking out for me, since we cannot speak, our communication is very intuitive”.

Today we started to sight sargassos, sporadically at first, but every time with more frequency. And we have seen floating debris as well: plastic material, a bottle, what seemed to be a piece of net, a buoy, and pieces of white Styrofoam…we can also count about twenty Portuguese Man-of –war (Physalia physalis), a fascinating animal, but we will tell more details on it tomorrow.

In the Bermuda triangle

Monday, May 2th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

5:30 p.m. Just after we left Bermudas, the captain ordered to hoist sails and we are traveling that way ever since. The cold front that kept us from sailing away is behind us now. Fortunately, weather forecast is in our favor now. “Weahter conditions are optimal, let us hope it lasts” –everyone comments.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

After sailing for 24 hours after the Ranger left Green Turtle Cay, we are inside the boundaries of the famous Bermuda Triangle, following a somewhat uncommon course for commercial vessels. Up until now, we have not seen any. Except for a few flying fish jumping around the prow, this immense extension of water seems empty. “It is not surprising, most part of the ocean is not densely populated” –comments Ricardo. Marine fauna prefers to gather in specific zones that are rich in biodiversity, with abundance of nutrients and where the trophic chain works perfectly. Well, the Bermuda Triangle is rather boring so far.

6:15 p.m. The Ranger’s course is set for the Sargasso Sea, but until now, we have only seen a few scattered samples of it. According to our calculations, we will start to see them tomorrow morning and the concentration will be greater when we reach our work destination. The Oceana ship is bound for a place called “Latitude of the Horses” (Latitud de los Caballos) where we expect to arrive in the next two days. Early European travelers baptized the place with that name. When they reached that area, sometimes they were in absolute calm. Weeks could go by and not advance the journey, waiting for the wind to blow in their favor. It was then when, in order to preserve the water supply and survive, they were forced to throw the horses overboard, as these animals need to drink plenty of liquids. Ironically, it would be great if the Ranger was in absolute calm now, to accomplish our tasks under better conditions.

-" Have you seen nocturnal bioluminiscence?", asks Ricardo

- No, what do you mean?

- I am referring to the dinoflagellates. They are microscopic organisms that emit light as a defense mechanism, when another animal is near or if you touch them. This is their way to sound the alarm in the presence of danger and if for some reason an animal eats them, the larger predators will have an easy target, because they will continue to emit luminescence even inside the body of the animal that has swallowed them.

-Mmmmm… how interesting, we will be on the lookout tonight during guard duty.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

6:48 p.m. As the Ranger gradually moves forward, life onboard is changing. Now, when crew members are not on guard duty (three hours at night and three during the day), we spend our time sleeping. I am writing this in the “messroom´”, alone. It is the first time I am in front of the computer while we navigate. I have to get used to it, because we will remain for many days in the high seas. The captain is having a rest, reading. Indi, who spends great part of the day cooking, takes off his apron and gets his binoculars. Carlos comes in and starts to play guitar. A little later Houssine comes in smiling, after he made a good selection of underwater photographs while “letting himself be at the rhythm of the Ranger”. Ricardo has been working with him, identifying species captured by his camera. In one of the larboard cabins, Mar has been editing video footing for hours and claims for his presence as well.

In the background, we can hear the music of Spanish songwriter Joaquin Sabina.

"Farewell, Bahamas!" The Ranger casts off the moorings

Sunday, May 1st, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

During the seven days we spent in Green Turtle Cay, at the island of Abaco (Bahamas), the main objective for Carlos, Nuño, Bibi, David and Jose Carlos was to prepare the catamaran for the next leg of the journey. “Many of the tasks we perform onboard are geared to improve the systems, both while we are docked, as while navigate”-indicates Carlos Perez. In this context, they have prepared a complete system “to be able to work with the mizzen sprit as if it was a crane and be able to load auxiliary boats onto deck” –he explains to me. “This will allow us more control of the boats when the sea conditions worsen while at the same time we can operate with fewer personnel.” They have also performed routine oil change to the motors, installed special containers in the bridge to keep binoculars and lanterns, they finished cleaning the hull-“because the “beard” on the ship grows very fast” and they have also installed the platform where the dinghies are placed. Oh! And we also moved the life savers to a more logical location!

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

Before departure, scheduled for 12:00, the first officer calls all crew members to the deck area, to give us instructions on safety measures onboard and to become aware that each of us plays a particular role onboard, whether you are a biologist, filmmaker, photographer, cook, journalist or sailor…”Anyone traveling on Oceana boats must know and learn certain safety measures”. Carlos warns us that during the crossing, we will go through emergency drills, with no warning, in order to put our readiness to the test.

While we listen to his instructions, a slight breeze begins to blow, and little by little blows harder until in becomes a strong wind. The lecture continues. Before we set sails, everything must be in perfect conditions to navigate: from the sails to tidiness in the cabins, in order to keep objects from flying off and causing accidents, in the event of a storm. The cabin hatches will always be closed, to avoid the risk of someone stumbling and falling overboard at night. The latches on the sides must also be locked, “to avoid having an untimely wave splashing our beds and leave it looking like a swimming pool and so no one can enter without knocking, but in general, the answer to that will be “no”, Carlos warns. During navigation, guard duties will be around the clock, with 3 hour shifts, every 12 hours. Each guard duty will count with an experienced captain in charge, and we must let the following shift know of turn over 15 minutes in advance. Another fundamental regulation: we must leave freshly made coffee in the thermos.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

By this time, the wind is in full force, but following with our plan, at 12:00 o’clock Nuño takes his place at the bridge and starts to impart orders. The Oceana catamaran slowly maneuvers and advances a few meters to refuel. Brendal and Willis, two of our local guides come to say goodbye. The wind force begins to cause us a little concern and we all direct our gaze at Nuño. “We are going to wait a few hours, to see if the wind improves. As the wind was blowing at 30 or 35 knots, it was not recommendable to try to remove the Ranger from the fuel pier. Besides, we heard reports of a ship that run aground in the middle of the channel”. This time, it is the elements that delay the Oceana Transoceanic expedition. While I write, Sole helps Indi prepare a lettuce and tomato salad, those are with us through life. “Lunch is ready!” and as we cannot do anything else, we gleefully devour “mamma Indi”’s salad.

At long last, at 4:40 pm on Sunday, May 1^st, the Ranger casts off moorings and sets course towards Green Turtle Cay’s exit channel. As we gradually move, I ask Nuño if maneuvers are equally complicated as when we entered. “Fortunately, there are fewer ships anchored and we are already familiar with the channel since we came in” We left behind the welcome sign we saw every time we came back to the catamaran after intense diving sessions. The Oceana ship also says goodbye to the mangroves on both sides of the channel. Farewell, Abaco Island, Farewell “low sea”, Farewell, Bahamas.

The Ranger resumes journey, now, en route to the Sargasso Sea.

Celebrating the " Junkanoo "

Saturday, April 30th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

This is the last day the catamaran Ranger remains anchored at Green Turtle Cay (Abaco Island in Bahamas). We arrived here on Sunday, April 24 and since then, many things happened to the Oceana crew. As we are leaving, we are satisfied, because we have filmed Nassau Groupers, parrotfish, sharks…although turtles have been elusive. First thing every morning, the first officer, Carlos, posts on a board the duties each crew member is assigned to and he gives us verbal instructions for preparation for departure.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

You can tell we are leaving. “Jose Carlos, climb on the main mast to change the top lamp, ask Bibi and David for help”. During one of our guard shifts, Carlos explained to me that the top light beams signals the position of a ship during nocturnal navigation. Large merchant ships usually have two: one higher up on the stern of the ship and a lower one, on the bow area. The Ranger, like other sailboats of similar size, has only one. Equipped with the mandatory safety harness, our companion had to climb several times to the main mast, because the screws were resistant. Below, David and Bibi were watchful of his movements, following up the operation with binoculars and a walkie-talkie.

Inside the Ranger, captain Nuño consults tide charts to know the precise time of our departure, he gathers climate information, makes a thorough check of navigation charts and prepares the “alidade” instrument (that is a compass used to measure the time the ship has left to exit towards the Atlantic Ocean). “We will follow an East-Northwest course towards the Sargasso Sea”. Meanwhile, Mar cleans her camera case once again. I lost count of the times she has done this…That is when we got the news that the new camera arrived at the Treasure Cay airport. We all let out a sigh of relief.

In the afternoon, Ricardo and I went ashore on one of the auxiliary boats, to visit a small town called New Plymouth, in the same island of Abaco, at about 10 minutes of navigation from Green Turtle Cay, to purchase last minute supplies: food and work equipment. The town’s wood houses in pastel colors seem nice, each has a color: pink, yellow, blue…the streets are clean and the people are very friendly. It is unlikely that these residents suffer from stress.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

From Spanish “Baja Mar”

The name Bahamas comes from the first Spanish explorers who called it “Baja Mar” (Low Tide), alluding to its shallow waters of blue, green and turquoise color seen for kilometers and kilometers. Christopher Columbus was the first European seafarer to reach Bahamas, but centuries later, the English took them over. In 1647, a group of puritans settled here, in a city they called Eleuthera (“freedom” in Greek). Later, the archipelago also served as refuge to pirates, like the famous Henry Morgan, “knitted” by Her British Majesty. Millions of tourists visit the island every year, mostly from the US and Canada, and stay at luxury resorts, which elevates ten times the total population of Bahamas. Other tourists come for sports fishing, practiced in deeper waters where they catch marlins, and other species that live in shallower water. Distinctive elements of this archipelago include mangroves, sandy bottoms, phanerogams and coral reefs in the shallower waters. The archipelago is made of 2.000 islands, islets, and cays of particular beauty. The marine bottom has not been explored significantly; this is why Oceana is interested in documenting the area.

When we came back from New Plymouth, we met up with a surprise. A contagious rhythm of drums came from an area further down to where the Ranger was anchored. It was the Junkanoo celebration, a centuries old tradition, from the times of slavery. It is believed this word is rooted in French language: “L’inconnu” (the stranger), because of the colorful masks used by dancers to cover their faces. Another theory is that Junkanoo was a tribal chief who requested his owners to allow slaves to celebrate New Year’s according to their traditions.

: © OCEANA / Nuño Ramos

Today, Annie Compton went ashore, since she must attend to personal and professional commitments. The generous help we received from Annie and her husband, Steven Mac Allister (Oceana Board Member) has been vital for the fulfillment of this expedition. Throughout the weeks we have spent together, Annie has demonstrated great energy and optimism, which we thought were inexhaustible. I believe that as she left, she was satisfied with the work accomplished by Oceana, and is looking forwards to new and exciting projects.

“For the turtles, guys!” We will miss her.

We are back in the coral caverns

Friday, April 29th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

Mar remained onboard the Ranger this morning, cleaning the case that protects her video camera while under water. When we came back to our home base operations in Green Turtle Cay after our daily dives, we found her patiently examining each of the case parts: screws, pressure joints, bolts, handles, 32 sealed tight devices…fortunately, when the humidity alarm went off yesterday, she was still floating on the surface, filming the other two divers from the water: Houssine and Sole as they prepared their diving gear. Making use of swift reflexes, Mar took off her jacket (floatability control; in diving it is just called jacket) and asked Brendal to grab the camera, and screamed at Houssine: “No, don’t jump!” “The camera made water”. When she opened the tightly sealed case once onboard, a flow of water came out, seting off the alarms agin.

During an expedition, you have to face many adversities, but above all, you have to keep calm. Just as if you had seen sharks. When the initial camera incident had passed, Annie Compton began making phone calls to purchase another camera of similar characteristics in New York, mobilizing all her contacts in that city. We had to delay our departure from the island of Abaco for another two days, but we are happy to know that a new camera will arrive tomorrow, Saturday. The other good news is that the accidented camera may be saved, after Mar places it in intensive care.

: © OCEANA / Houssine Kaddachi

Well, today only Houssine and Sole went for a dive. Yesterday, the diving team met up with sharks as they were returning from Coral Caverns. Sole had run out of batteries. And everyone had little oxygen left in their tanks.” I had not noticed their presence, and suddenly, when I looked up I saw a white shadow with an immense jaw and several remoras attached. Before I could react, the shark saw me and hastily swam away”. Meanwhile, those of us onboard the ship could see them surrounding the boat where Brendal was, passing again and again underneath…Today, it is a different matter. It was two rays who waited for Sole and Hussein, specifically; they were two Spotted Eagle Rays, (Aetobatus narinari) who waited for them as soon as they jumped in the water, in the area of Coral Cavers where we decided to concentrate our efforts. And so did the sharks.

We knew we could find elasmobranches, in particular Caribbean Reef Sharks, Blacktip Reef shark and Sandtiger shark, but not this soon. The Caribbean Reef Sharks (Carcharhinus perezi) and the Blacktip Reef sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus) are very similar. They can be differentiated by the marks on their anal fins and by a kind of water or color that run along the lateral fins. Both species move in shallow areas, around coral reefs.

The Sandtiger shark (Carcharhinus leucas) like the one we filmed yesterday, was among the species with worse fame. It can be found in very shallow waters of just one meter deep, and even go into a river course.

: © OCEANA / Houssine Kaddachi

"Ampullae of Lorenzini"

While we waited for our companions, Ricardo continues explaining: “Since they have no hands, fish use their mouths to identify objects and other living beings they find on their path. It is their sense of tact. If they touch a gudgeon fish it is not a problem, but if they touch a Sandtiger shark, that changes things. They are very curious animals and most accidents occur because of the need they have to touch the strange “animal” they have in front, with their mouths.

We also learned that the shark’s sense of smell allow them to locate minute concentrations of substances in the water, like blood. Or those produced by fear in human beings. In addition to their sense of smell and sight, sharks have a system of electric sensors located under their nose (called Ampullae of Lorenzini) which detects electrical waves produced by living beings underwater. Our divers swim with certain calmness among sharks. The first rule if they find one in front of them is to keep calm. Mar says sharks perform a kind of dance: they first zig- zag, then they arch their backs and finally, they shoot out like in a sprint race.

Sharks on sight

Thursday, April 28th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

Let’s get back to the ship!-Ricardo calls out. In the fraction of a second my brain processed the authentic meaning of those words: “Danger, sharks”! My companion points down with his fingers, ten or twelve meters to the left. Right where the reef ends and a deep underwater ravine of sandy floor begin, I see the animal emerge. If I had been able to scratch my eyes underwater I would have. But after the moment of fascination, a visceral fear began. Trying to move calmly, I hit my diving companion, who pushed me towards a shallower rocky area. Barricaded from that position, where the shark would not reach us so easily, we observe it passing by with a mix of elegance and mightiness, in control of its territory. We are the intruders.

At a gesture from Ricardo, we emerged, instinctively looking toward the ship to calculate the distance we had to swim to reach it. We were only 60-70 meters away, but it seemed very far. I was afraid that more sharks would come while I was swimming and I may be attacked. “Now, let’s go!” Ricardo calls. I looked down just as I began to cross the sandy watercourse, when I saw another shark coming from the right side, this time, only five meters away. I grabbed my companion’s hand and pressed hard, getting as close to him as I could, while the splashing underneath seemed an eternity. It felt like we had lead around our legs. I decided not to look down again and as we had just ten meters to go, we began to swim master. I did not know then, Ricardo told me later, but we had a third shark on our left side.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

: © OCEANA / Houssine Kaddachi

Coral Caverns

Except for this small reverse, everything has been very good for the Oceana expedition members. We had decided that while the divers filmed and took photographies underwater, we would remain on a shallow water reef called Coral Caverns, locating the Nassau Grouper (Epinephelus striatus). Contrary to other similar reefs we have documented (where juvenile animals were abundant), in here we found greater numbers of adult specimens of rather large dimensions.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

We saw parrotfish there (Scaridae), displaying the characteristic colors of these species during their reproductive periods. “Similar to the parrotfish species, many reef animals have very different aspects and colors throughout their lives, from the moment they are larvae to maturity”, explains Ricardo, while he shows us the species guide where we can clearly see the different development stages of these animals. We also sighted several Queensland Groupers and Tarpons (Megalops atlanticus) a fish that seems like a fresh water species, with gigantic scales, they can grow to reach two meters long. In the words of the filmmaker, Mar: “They are spectacular, they seem prehistoric for their size and appearance”

: © OCEANA / Houssine Kaddachi

The exceptional is for them to attack

Everyhing was like this, until the sharks decided to come to the spot we were at and not where the divers waited for them. The first to come was a Sandtiger Shark (Carcharhinus leucas), species that is included in the so called “shark triad”, together with the Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias), and the Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvieri). The other two sharks to come were Reef Blacktip Sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus).

The truth is, seeing a shark is always awe inspiring, but in the majority of cases, they are totally harmless: the strange thing, the exceptional thing if for them to attack. That does not mean we must not take precautions. It would be the same if we were in the savannah and we saw some lions. In particular when, as it is this case, there is a Tiger Shark measuring over two meters, just passing by us.

The experience we had in Coral Caverns had been so constructive, that we decided to come back in the afternoon for another diving session. We were not counting on a new unexpected occurrence: just as the divers jumped in the water, the humidity alarm in Mar’s camera went off.

You will like the gorgonians I have filmed

Wednesday, April 27th, 2005 - Paloma Larena -

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

We are in hurricane area and the residents of Green Turtle Cay are still getting over the devastation left by the last one. The first officer onboard, Carlos Pérez says he has seen many moorings torn apart in Marsh Harbour. He went there with David and Indi, to purchase oil and motor parts. They took a ferry that transported them for three nautical miles. From there, they had to rent a car and drive nearly 40 kilometers, until they reached a small town in the island of Abaco. Indi took the opportunity to purchase yogurt and bananas, two items that disappear very fast at the Oceana Ranger. I can attest to the fact that the Ranger crew is very health conscious.

Today we gave Houssine, the photographer, the day off; he got up this morning feeling terrible muscle spasms. Although we gave him anti-inflammatory pills and a massage, he still did not feel better. It must be a cramp. In addition to being a photographer, he assists Mar, the Oceana filmmaker, by holding a heavy light beam while underwater and even holding Mar…to keep her from sudden movements that could frighten the species that is being filmed. The effort pays, in the long run. Houssine prefers to stay back on the Ranger, Bibi will replace him. He knows we will try to film sharks tomorrow, and that will not be an easy task.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

The weather was not very promising this morning. It was grey and sullen. Suddenly, pouring rain began to fall. “It seems like it will not get any better” comments someone in a somber tone. The climate ruined the filming dive we planned for early this morning. Ricardo and Mar had an emergency meeting, to reconsider the work plan. Meanwhile, the rain eases a little. To try to save the day, they decide to go film with macro and obtain details of things that the expediton does not normally have time to stop to film: gorgonians and corals, as well as small mollusks and crustaceans” Ricardo explains.

Brendal himself accompanies us, offering us the use of a ship a little bigger than the one we used the last few days. Our local guide is going to turn 62 years old, but apart from the grey in his curly hair, no one could guess it: he keeps a well polished, well toned body that has no fat in it. Even when Bahamans are people of handsome features, no everyone can presume as much as he.

: © OCEANA / Houssine Kaddachi

Flamenco tongue and large flower coral

After a one hour dive, Mar’s head emerges first. We know this, because today she is wearing a new handkerchief which our companion Maribel Lopez gave her when the Ranger passed through Panama (now she is back in our office in Madrid). Wearing that handkerchief, Mar no longer looks like a pirate. She has done very well underwater; she is so happy that she can’t wait to come onboard to tell us. “You are going to like it, Ricardo, you will see. The polyp I have recorded, you are going to like it...” she repeats excitedly. Large bubbles coming up beside her announce that Bibi is about to emerge. And she did. The Ranger’s Galician sailor (from Cambados) takes off her regulator and nods affirmatively in any way she can. “She had me filming the polyp for fifteen minutes…but she is right, it was fascinating!”

Mar’s enthusiasm has a reason to be. Every time we plan and prepare our dives, Ricardo instructs divers on which species are to be filmed and photographed. Today, they had to document “flamenco tongues” one of the most ferocious devourers of gorgonian polyps known, and also film all the activity around the gorgonian tree. Today, we were lucky to find a less common coral; it is called “Large Flower Coral” (Mussa angulosa).

Gorgonians are similar to hard corals, but instead of having polyps with a number of tentacles in number multiples of 6 (hexacoralarios), their polyps have eight (octocolorarios).They live in colonies, like many coral species, and they can have very different shapes: leafy (also called “marine fans”), branching, encrusting, (they create a sort of tapestry over the rocks), or in the shape of a whip (other shapes: pillar like, and boulder shaped). They live in areas with plenty of light (because they have a symbiotic relation with algae, like other corals) and in areas with ample movement where there is constant flow of nutrients. They are also known as soft corals, because they can move with the waves…

: © OCEANA / Houssine Kaddachi

Gorgonians in the Mediterranean

“In Europe, there is a great variety of gorgonians, and in the Mediterranean, there are commonly found formations known as coralline reefs” comments Ricardo, while we wait for divers (there are 6 today) to emerge from their dive. In the European coralline reef, gorgonians would occupy the upper layer of this ecosystem, together with sponges, coralline algae…”Despite its great diversity, this ecosystem is not under protection of European legislation, which is regrettable. In some Mediterranean areas, it estimated that these areas have been reduced in more than 80%”

This is why when the Oceana Ranger reaches the Mediterranean, this will be one our main objectives: to advocate so the European Union include the coralline as Habitat Directive.

Observing, on land and sea

Tuesday, April 26th, 2005 -Paloma Larena -

Yesterday we ended the day with excellent news: We can fix the motor in this place. Fortunately, David found out that, by mistake, the Fort Lauderdale mechanics connected the hose that runs underneath the flotation line to the motor, causing it to be flooded”, comments Carlos Pérez. We breathe a sigh of relief, or else, the “mistake” would have caused us a delay of many days and we would have been forced to give up on important projects that were planned months ago, like the crossing to the Sargasso Sea.

In addition to the technical problems we have endured, expedition members are a little disappointed by the poor result obtained in our search for turtles. Patience. The only thing we can do is continue diving until we find them. Today we are diving in front of the turtle nesting beaches in Pelican Cay, where we went with the help of Louis, Brendal’s young collaborator. The process of laying eggs costs turtles a great use of energy and in order to rest and gain back strength, they go to the nearby reef areas where they feel safe and undisturbed. We know they are there, we came to see them and we have followed them…but they are always faster than our auxiliary boat and faster than the divers. Except for local guides, none of us has seen them in detail. Neither has the two diving teams formed by Mar and Houssine, Annie and Sole nor those of us who practice snorkel (Ricardo, Indi and I).

In one of the reefs, we found out that many Elkhorn corals (Acropora palmata) were destroyed by huracanes, so frequent in this area. We also were fortunate to see a small coral extension of Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis)

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Curly tail Iguanas

Brendal had promised us dinner on the beach; we would eat fish caught in the area: porgy, dusky grouper and pez cerdo. As soon as Ricardo, Director of Research, Indi, the naturalist cook and I went ashore, to a place called Manjack Cay, we went on a road that runs all along the cay. At every step of the way we could see small iguanas measuring no more than 25 centimeters long-the locals call them “curly tails”, as they curl their tails in the shape of a snail. They sit looking curious and daring on the tree branches, and with a little savvy, I was able to photograph some of them.

The birds also seem to be undisturbed. Indi identifies a Warbler that flies around us for a long while, oblivious to human presence. There are also humming birds, but these fly much higher. We even saw owl pellets with skeletal remains of a small rodent. We could see the skull, molars and part of the incisors, perfectly. Raptor species swallow their prey whole and the parts they cannot digest, like hair and bones, they regurgitate.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

As for me, after several days of practicing snorkel, I can already distinguish the attractive and colorful parrotfish, with their lips tinted dark; the Lined Butterflyfish; Yellow Boxfish, Browse Fish, and a few squirrel fish. During one of these dives, as we were coming back to the ship, I was sure I saw a shark, across, at some five meters below me. I swiftly turned around to warn my companions who came behind, but they did not see it anymore.

Apart from Nassau dusky groupers other species that are included in the priority list to be documented during this Transoceanic Expedition are turtles, sharks and stingrays. Because of strict safety reasons, when we enter their territories, only divers will participate in submersion sessions.

Ouch! As I write, after dinner, small, almost invisible mosquitoes are biting us to death!

Brendal, our man in the Bahamas

Monday, April 25th 2005 - Paloma Larena -

The Oceana Ranger will be anchored for the next five days off the island of Abaco, in a place called Green Turtle Cay. Early in the morning we meet with Brendal, a Bahamian who has been an institution in this area for more than twenty years because he knows these waters like the palm of his hand, and who will help us to find the best dive sites. The plan from now until Friday is to search for sea turtles, above all the loggerhead (Caretta caretta).

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

Oceana is working intensely on both sides of the Atlantic to prevent the widespread accidental capture of this species. It is estimated that each year some 40,000 sea turtles - many of them coming from the area where the Ranger is now - fall victim to the hooks of longline fishing boats in the Mediterranean. The Spanish fleet alone accounts for 20,000 of these captures. Although the fishermen don't intend to do the turtles any harm, they continue to use damaging "J" hooks that cause severe injury. You might remember that last year Carlos Perez, who is now first mate aboard the Ranger, traveled on a longline boat to document the problem. Now, Oceana's scientists and campaigners are working on a series of projects to compel European governments and authorities to require that "circle hooks," which are far less damaging to turtles, be used in place of "J" hooks.

We don't know if we'll find any, but this is the reason we are looking for loggerheads in the Bahamas, before they begin their long migration towards the Mediterranean.

While Nuño, Carlos, Bibi and David stay on the Ranger to work on the broken port motor, Ricardo and I go with the diving team (Mar, Houssine, Sole and José Carlos). For this first trip Brendal suggests we take the boat of Captain Willis, who guides us first to Fiddle Cay. Willis has lived here all 35 years of his life. "I am a water boy," he confesses, grinning from ear to ear, "I can't take more than two weeks in the city." We were so impressed with his work that we hope to collaborate again.

Submerged in calm, crystalline waters that oscillate between dark blue-greens and lighter shades of turquoise we analyzed three different habitats: a barrier reef, a crest of brown algae, and a marine sea grass prairie.

In the first, hard corals of the genus Porites were dominant, especially mustard coral (Porites astreoides) crowned with elkhorn coral ( Acropora palmata). "Some of these impressive corals, the trunks of which are 15 and 20 centimeters in diameter, have been broken off at the base. It was devastating to see that destruction," comments Ricardo. "There were pieces of nets caught in corals nearby. The cause of the destruction was clear."

In the brown seaweed crest, sargassum was dominant (Sargassum platycarpum, different than what we found the other day at Bimini) and dyctiotales (Stypopodium zonale and Padina spp.). There were many juvenile fish, especially damselfish and wrasses. And finally, a mixed prairie of sea grass (Thalassia testudinum y Syringodium filiforme).

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

Someone gives a shout when we are above the meadow of sea grass. Finally! It looks like a green turtle, but we're not sure. We try not to lose it from sight while Mar and Houssine prepare their dive equipment so they can follow it. Before she plunges Oceana's videographer tells us, very seriously, not even to think of going in after them. Those of us with snorkels obey and wait impatiently on deck. Finally, disappointment. Mar has only been able to film it from afar.

The green turtle (Chelonya midas) is the only herbivorous sea turtle. While hawksbill turtles nibble on sponges, the evidence of which we have seen, the green turtle has a serrated beak to cut vegetables, especially the so-called "turtle grass" (Thalassia testudinum) typical of this zone. And unlike the loggerhead and other sea turtles, the green turtle does not migrate over great distances.

In the sea grass meadow there were many equinoderms, like sand dollars (Clypeaster rosaceus) and cushion sea stars (Oreaster reticulates), and fish like the dog snapper (Lutjanus jocu), distinctive because of the black bands that cross over its eyes.

After seven hours working in the water, we return to Green Turtle Cay listening to Willis' stories. Generations of his family have lived here. "My grandparents ate turtles in soup, or fried. Even I remember having cooked them when I was little. And although there are still a few restaurants in the area that offer turtle as an exotic dish, fortunately most Bahamians understand that we have to protect them now."

Nerves of steel at Green Turtle Cay

Sunday, April 24th 2005 - Paloma Larena -

1:00 a.m. Although we spent the night anchored at Great Salt Cay, for security we continue the night watches. The weather forecasts continue to be good, but an intense wind has picked up. The plan for the Oceana Ranger is still to set sail again at dawn.

1:30 a.m. Someone broadcasts a radio message asking for help, but it's impossible to understand. It repeats once, and then there is absolute silence.

2:45 a.m. On the verge of finishing the watch, I cast a last glance around. Not a single light on the horizon toward land, except those that mark the position of a half dozen sailboats and a catamaran that looks like a toy next to the Ranger.

Like Oceana's vessel, they are anchored for shelter at this key, uninhabited like most of those that comprise the immense archipelago of the Bahamas: 2,000 islands and islets of which only 270 are large enough to be habitable. The Bahamas are still a wild paradise; of the 270, only 25 are actually inhabited.

8:00 a.m. We pull up the anchor and head for the island of Abaco. But the news isn't good. Checking the motors, David the mechanic discovered that the oil in one of them was mixing with water. "And this is not a minor problem," Carlos explains to Ricardo. An unexpected problem can change the plans of the Transoceanic Expedition.

Green Turtle Cay

6:00 p.m. The docking operation at Green Turtle Cay has required, as they say, nerves of steel. A narrow entrance between mangroves and palms gave way to a tiny port with several dozen sailboats, which we have had to maneuver between, avoiding just barely, almost to the millimeter. As we pass, the owners of the boats poke their heads out. "You have to be cold-blooded to do this," says Bibi, once we are moored. But Nuño dismisses his feat. "I've seen worse."

As soon as our connection is restored, Ricardo sends a message to Xavier Pastor, Director of Oceana Europe, to bring him up to date.

"I'm writing from the entrance of the port of Green Turtle Cay in Abaco. Today we anchored in the port and tomorrow, once we've passed customs, we'll tie up at the dock. We have a problem with the port motor, but we don't know how serious it is. In Florida we fixed the rupture that was mixing the fresh and salt water in the refrigeration circuit. Now what's happening is that the fresh water is mixing with the oil, forming a `mousse.'

Until we can talk to someone tomorrow we won't know the scope of the problem. If it is serious, it could keep us here longer than we planned, which was 4-5 days. It's also possible that some of us could get off here, and others continue with the Ranger another 20 miles, to where there is a greater population center, to complete the repairs.

As soon as we know more I'll let you know."

"Ok, thanks for keeping me informed. Good luck with everything and I hope it works out." Xavier also tells us that today we were on the Spanish television channel TVE 1 at 9 in the evening. With images of kelps, the sharks of Coco's island and a few other things (lobster and the flounder burying itself in sand). Also, he managed to talk about shark finning and the goal of restricting trawling by 40% in EU waters by 2007. Fantastic! Mission accomplished.

Orders from " Monkey Island "

Saturday, April 23rd 2005 - Paloma Larena -

About an hour ago we anchored off Great Salt Cay, halfway to Abaco Island, to spend the night. Nuño decides that we cannot keep sailing without light because from here it is dangerous to sail at night. The waters in this part of the Bahamas are shallow and although the Oceana Ranger, like almost all catamarans, hardly sinks in the water (a meter and a half), there are stretches where the depth doesn't reach one meter. Apart from the risk to the Ranger, another important consideration is potential damage to the corals and sponges so abundant in these waters. In the Ship's Log they've marked this as a "dry area." David, the mechanic, changes the salt water pump of the port motor, because it has broken.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Throughout the day the captain and Carlos have been very attentive to every potential obstacle. Carlos at the helm, listening for the orders Nuño gives from "monkey island." "Monkey Island" is what sailors call the platform just above the cockpit. Although the catamaran Ranger glides very slowly over the calm water, intensely turquoise, at the smallest lapse of attention we risk running aground in the sand.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

We pass Mangrove Key on the starboard side. Carlos has to spin the wheel at the helm often.

"Bottom 6!" he shouts the depth in feet from the cockpit.

"Go `head, go' head!" the captain responds from "monkey island."

"Ok, course 140!" confirms Carlos.

Attracted by the music, Mar Mas has emerged from her cabin. She had been down there for hours, editing the powerful footage she filmed a few days ago in the Florida Keys.

I am writing this chapter to the strains of a bagpipe. It belongs to Nuño, though he sometimes shares it with Carlos. I can't restrain myself and leave the "messroom" to join the group outside. The music has infected the crew: improvising with whatever is at hand (Indi, the kitchen mortar; Annie, an empty bottle; Carlos, Ricardo and José Carlos, their hands on gasoline cans - empty, of course) they have formed a first-rate ensemble - the Ranger band.

No trace of sea turtles

Friday, April 22nd 2005 - Paloma Larena -

The Ranger has arrived at Bimini (in the Bahamas) ahead of schedule, at 6:15 a.m. We couldn't anchor until the first light of dawn. The wait was justified: it was important to be able to see the sandy seafloor before letting down the anchor because in this area, Ricardo explains, there are many sea grasses, and we have to take extreme precautions not to damage them.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

I am writing these lines at the end of the day, because Friday the 22nd has been very intense. While Ricardo, Annie, David and I went on a reconnaissance mission in the dingy, the diving team was preparing two long dives, from which they returned brimming with excitement. Now we are recounting all of the day's work. From the dives, we can remember some 40 species at the least and two dozen invertebrates, as well as a dozen types of algae and plants.

Oceana's videographer, Mar Mas, is "mad" because Indi, the cook, had the great luck to see a nurse shark (Ginglimostoma cirratum). And she didn't. "There are days when it turns out to be hard to be a woman," she jokes, "and be trying to film backlighting in a tunnel." The situation is that Mar has also missed the magnificent Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) that the photographer, Houssine Kaddachi, did manage to capture. "Well, it wasn't the best" - she admits - "but I did film all of the ecosystem that Ricardo requested, including a calico scallop, which is a commercial species here much appreciated in gastronomy." It wasn't a calico scallop, corrects the Director, but a flame scallop (Lima scabra). Mar has also come face to face with a graceful smooth trunkfish (Lactophrys triqueter), "blowing water out of its little mouth, and watching the sand intently, fixed in place like a hummingbird, agitating it in order to eat the little crustaceans among the suspended particles..."

But let's see how it all happened.

10:00 a.m. Friday 22. The diving team is in motion once again. Finally they are going to do their first dive of the Ranger project after the long, and for them tedious, technical pause the Transoceanic Expedition was obliged to make in Florida. From the dingy, which we never lose from sight, Bibi calls to the boat just before the divers tumble into the water.

-`Ranger, Ranger, do you get me? Over.'
-`Ranger here. Over.'
-`There's a buoy here and we're moored to it. Do you see us?'
-`Affirmative, affirmative, we see you.'

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

Today we do two dives, the first in an underwater tunnel between 14 and 30 meters deep. "Underwater tunnels can be enormous. They create an interior passage, while the lateral rocks are full of filter-feeders," Ricardo Aguilar explains to us.

Backlighting in a tunnel.

Down there, notes Mar, the play of light is fascinating. Intense reds, yellows, purples, the contrast between the white, blue and black...and then suddenly appear the silhouettes of a group of little fish, an elusive grouper. "Then, right in front of me, a rod of black coral two and a half meters tall - dazzling."

The species we find in the tunnel are typical of open-water zones, like the bar jack (Caranx ruber), Bermuda chub (Kyphosus sectatrix), amberjack (Seriola dumerli); and others more typical of reefs like French grunts (Haemulon flavolineatum), Goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara)...The ecosystem has three types of coral: soft, hard and black. Soft coral is much more flexible, while hard coral is rigid and can form reefs. Black coral species are very rare in the world of coral. They are so called because they generally have a type of bark, like trees. They secrete a protein, usually black in color, that hardens in concentric circles like the rings of a tree around the skeleton. And their polyps remain permanently outside; they don't retract like the polyps of other corals.

The Oceana Expedition has also documented a lot of Halimeda, a type of green algae fundamental to the creation of coral reefs, because it has a calcic structure that, when the algae dies, supplies calcium to the corals to form their skeleton.

Rabbit Rock

The site of the second dive was a small underwater peak known as Rabbit Rock, which goes almost from the surface to a depth of 8-10 meters. Here we found a habitat comprised of three seaweeds: one sargassum (Sargassum polyceratium) and two types of turbinaria (Turbinaria turbinata y T. tricostata). "This is an ecosystem typical of coasts and shallow water, used by a multitude of species, especially juveniles. We saw everything from invertebrates to sponges, urchins, sea stars, and plume worms."

"These last are similar and of the same family as the plume worms of European reefs, the sabelídos, or the beautiful tub worm of the Mediterranean. And many fish of every kind: triggerfish, squirrelfish, butteflyfish, surgeonfish, damselfish...

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

During the reconnaissance outing we saw no sea turtles, but we have had it confirmed that some have arrived in the waters of Abaco, next stop for the Expedition, especially hawksbill and green turtles. It's more unusual to find a loggerhead at this time of year, because their nesting time is later. Apart from the turtles, we've come to Bimini because it is one of the important mating and nursery grounds for species like the Nassau grouper or sharks like the lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris). The adults later travel to more oceanic zones. This is also a feeding ground for the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), in fact we have seen many sponges with bites taken out of them, surely by this species of turtle.

Annie, Ricardo and I did have the luck to see the Nassau grouper that Mar wasn't able to capture today on film. The name is taken from the capital of the Bahamas, and the species is distributed from here throughout the Caribbean. Due to its unusual beauty it has been much targeted by sportfishermen, but commercial fishing has also depleted the species, so that the Nassau grouper is ever more scarce throughout the area of its distribution.

As we arrived at one of the points we had wanted to study, we caught sight of a nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum). Because its head is much wider than other sharks it appears more threatening, but the nurse shark is practically harmless. Very calm, it spends most of the time resting on the surface of the sea floor.

Indi had never seen a shark in its natural habitat. "It made an impression on me, because when you see it coming you think that maybe there are others coming, less pacifistic. It was thrilling. I was swimming level with the bottom and it suddenly appeared, surrounded by many surgeonfish (Acanthurus spp.) and grunts (Haemulon spp.), swimming with it like a retinue. I guess it was looking for food, it was about a meter and a half, grey with yellow."

We also bumped into a pair of barracudas (Sphyraena barracuda). Barracuda are a very territorial species that spend their time in coastal zones, especially over sea grass or soft sandy bottoms, like here, where there is also so-called "turtle grass" (Thalassia testudinum). Ricardo Aguilar was very attentive to its movements. "I didn't want to tell you, so as not to make you nervous, but it followed us, parallel, for 50 meters."

The Ranger " swing "

Night, 21 - 22 April 2005 - Paloma Larena -

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Once we've set sail from Miami, Carlos Pérez, first mate on board, convenes the crew to give a lesson on security and assign the night watches. We do them in pairs, in three-hour shifts, starting at six in the evening. David and Annie start. I'm with Carlos, from midnight to three a.m. It makes me feel safe, because Carlos is an experienced sailor. With a little luck, he says, maybe some of his knowledge will rub off on me. I go to bed to see if I can sleep a few hours.

11:50 p.m., Thursday the 21st. I wake to the sound of my cell phone alarm and am out of bed in a flash. It's my first watch on board and I want to be on time. I throw on a polar fleece, in case it's cold, adjust the flashlight at my forehead and hang binoculars around my neck. Before we go out to the cockpit, Carlos and I put on life jackets with safety rings. "The life jacket has an automatic safety device that, if you fall in the water, inflates, keeping you afloat and marking your position with a light."

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Whew - it's a relief to know it!! We are not allowed to go out on deck at night without the jacket and, for my part, I only hope never to have to test it. We are both ready to relieve Indi, the cook, and Jose, sailor and dive-master. Their watch has been calm and I hope that ours will be as well. Out we go!

12:00 p.m. During a watch you have to scan the horizon continually, at the prow, the stern, to port and to starboard to ensure that no other boat is on a collision course with us. This is the first step. The second is to check the radar, which shows our trajectory and the presence of potential obstacles.

1:00 a.m., Friday the 22nd. Oceana's catamaran is going, literally, like a shot. I agree with what Nuño told us some days ago, that the Ranger, specially designed for transoceanic sailing, is very sturdy. I've also heard Carlos say on various occasions that this boat is "noble." From my limited experience as a deckhand, I'd say that she has a beautiful motion. It feels as if the Ranger is sliding gently, undulating to the measure of the waves, as if it were rocking us in a cradle. "Relax your knees and let your body take the rhythmic movement," Carlos advises me, to prevent possible seasickness. Done. It seems to make things better. "It's the Ranger swing," my companion adds, with a knowing smile.

2:40 a.m. Our destination appears on the radar: Bimini Island, our first port of call in the Bahamas! The second will be a few days afterward, at Abaco Island. We're going in search of sea turtles. This area is the natural habitat of five species. It is a mating and nesting ground. From a scientific point of view, Oceana is interested in all five species, since most complete a long migration into European waters. But we especially want to film a loggerhead (Caretta caretta).

2:55 a.m. The night has passed without event and the three hours of our watch have flown by. Carlos descends to wake the next pair, Ricardo and Bibi, our Galician mate from Cambados, who you know already from previous episodes. Although the captain is the only one not required to keep watch - his job is to be continually on call for whatever needs doing on the boat - he comes out to see how things are going. We are sailing at six knots, and if we keep it up we'll arrive at Bimini (in the Bahamas) ahead of schedule, so we slow the pace to four knots.

When day breaks our diving team will return to the water once again, looking for turtles. For that reason they are not on watch. That is the other rule I've just learned: the day before a dive the divers are exempt from watch, as well as the day after. I don't know about Carlos, but me, after such an exciting day - "I'm goin' to bed," as Bibi would say.

Press conference in Miami

Thursday, April 21st 2005 - Paloma Larena -

8:00 a.m. The crew is ready to begin the day. We have to move the Oceana Ranger to the site where the press conference will be held, at Bayside Miamarina (right in the center of Miami, the immense Latin metropolis of the United States where if you don't speak Castilian it almost seems strange). The port captain, Juan Ginarte, comes by to guide us there. With us is Doralisa Pilarte, Director of Communications for Oceana North America, who has organized this meeting with the press.

10:00 a.m. During the press conference Carlos Pérez, first mate of the Ranger, and Ricardo Aguilar, Director of Research, both speak. I wait until the end to refer the journalists to Ann Compton, because of the special importance her presence aboard the Ranger has for Oceana. Without Annie and her husband Stephen McAllister, member of Oceana's Board of Directors, the Expedition from the Pacific to the Mediterranean would not have been possible. Or at least not so soon.

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Annie and Mac

They are the owners of the catamaran which they have so generously put at Oceana's disposal. McAllister (who knew Xavier Pastor from earlier projects and work in defense of the marine environment) mentioned that he had a boat and wanted to give it to Oceana. Xavier, of course, seized the day. Hardly a year after their first conversation, the Ranger is a dream become reality, with twelve crew on board, of many nationalities and many talents. We are biologists, telecommunications engineers, photographers and videographers, divers, journalists... The ocean is our life. And when we are not on the boat, we are in Oceana's offices, driving projects to guarantee effective protection of the seas.

Taimy, the cave diver

Among the press that come to see the Ranger off is a camera from Miami's Channel 10, as well as journalists from the Miami Herald and the Florida Sun-Sentinel, accompanied by a photographer. Taimy Alvarez, the Sun-Sentinel photographer, stays to talk with us for a moment. "It's sad to see the change in the oceans between the time I was young and now," she said. "Before there were many more fish." The daughter of Cubans who relocated to Miami, she knows what she's talking about, since "my father is a fisherman, he named me after the movie `Taimy, the sailor's daughter'" and, besides, since it couldn't be otherwise, she's a diver. She dives with her husband in the caves of northern Florida, "where only one percent of the world's divers are licensed to go, trained by the National Speleological Society."

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

While the photographers shoot, all standing on the catamaran's starboard deck, I can't get over how amazing it is that Oceana is working on a global scale to protect and conserve our oceans. Because while the Ranger expedition crew are talking with the American journalists, our colleague Cheryl Haro arrives from Oceana's office in Santiago, Chile, where the Board of Directors has just met to design the organization's next projects. And we are all thinking of our colleagues in Europe who, just a few hours ago, opened the International Symposium on Oceans in Madrid - thanks to the cooperation of the Fundación Ramón Areces - a two-day gathering of distinguished marine experts. Among them, of course, will be Michael Hirshfield, Chief Scientist for Oceana.

We think of all of this with great satisfaction, because what we are telling the journalists on either side of the Atlantic is connected. Only one example: the lecture given by Professor Bernd Christiansen, of the University of Hamburg, will focus on underwater mountains (seamounts); and in a month and a half, if we stick to our current plans, the Ranger divers will be filming and photographing the flora and fauna of the seamounts of Gorringe Ridge, southeast of the Iberian Peninsula.

7:00 p.m. Goodbye to Miami. The Oceana Ranger sets sail from Bayside Miamarina, headed for Bimini Island in the Bahamas. We will be sailing through the night, will arrive tomorrow, Friday the 22nd, at dawn. And in the early morning Oceana's divers will return to the water once again. The Transoceanic Expedition resumes its work, as captain Nuño says.

Leaving Harbour Towne Marina ( Fort Lauderdale )

Wednesday, April 20 2005 - Paloma Larena -

Yesterday a new sailor, José Carlos Corral, came aboard. He is also a diver, has been since he was 15. "You must have 3,000 dives logged," Mar says to him. "Well, the truth is I haven't counted..." José Carlos has been working as a dive master in Zanzibar for the past three months. For non-diving-experts, the title of dive master allows him to serve as a guide for groups of divers. Our new Expedition colleague is also a guitarist. "I was trained in classical but I play jazz." If the trend continues we'll be able to start the "Ranger band".

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

We get moving. It's 8:20 in the morning and the catamaran advances a few meters to the re-fueling area. Part of the crew is inside collecting provisions, including water reserves. It seems impossible that everything could fit in such a limited space, but eventually Indi, Mar, Sole and Ricardo take it upon themselves to clean up the messroom (literally a mess of a room, a multi-purpose space that, depending on the time of day, serves as a reading and recreation room, kitchen, dining room, and work area in general). Right now it is only expected to be in order for departure.

Finally, today, 20 days after its arrival in Florida, at 11:30 in the morning the Oceana Ranger abandons Harbour Towne Marina for Miami, where our colleagues from Oceana USA have organized a press conference to send off the Expedition from North American waters. Already Sonia Osorio, a journalist with the Spanish press agency EFE in Miami, has called us and has interviewed Ricardo Aguilar.

"We have five hours of sailing ahead," the captain informs us. Our destination is Bayside Marina, a water sport port in downtown Miami.

Without further ado we leave, sailing through mangroves. Two ibises are settled majestically in the crown of a red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle). We also see an osprey (Pandion haliaetus), a heron and many Florida brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis), identifiable by their yellow head.

We sail at approximately three knots, but entering the open ocean we speed up to seven. We travel parallel to the coast, at a distance of three miles. A continuous line of immense skyscrapers accompanies us throughout the trip. Five and a half hours later, a group of dolphins come to welcome us, swimming at the Ranger's prow. It is the sign that we have arrived in Miami. And what a coincidence! As we enter the port, there appears ahead of us, majestic, the Spanish Navy training ship Juan Sebastián Elcano, which is also moored here. We leave it behind while a poster directs us to lessen our speed, since this is a manatee zone.

Indi, the naturalist cook

Tuesday, April 19th 2005 - Paloma Larena -

"Indi, run, come on, come on, drop everything!" shouts Nuno, the captain, from the cockpit. You should have seen how Jose Pañalver (that is, Indi) left the Ranger kitchen. Well, Indi and myself, of course. He was chopping vegetables to freeze in bags. I, across the room, was watching him while writing this journal, of which he will be the protagonist today. Airborne is an understatement. We didn't know it, but outside a splendid osprey (Pandion haliaetus) was waiting for us, performing spectacular plunges in search of a tasty fish.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

He didn't manage to seize any in the short time we watched him, but the mere sight of him made us happy for the rest of the day.

Indi, besides being the Ranger cook, is a tremendous bird enthusiast. Along with cayenne pepper and flavoring for our rice, he has brought aboard the Ranger his binoculars and guides for the identification of species. "The rate of success for the osprey is less than you could imagine, it happens to all predators: whenever they aren't looking for a catch they get one," he explains when we return to the `messroom.' Indi continues chopping vegetables. And I, the journal. "This bird is ubiquitous, you can find it in America as well as Europe. The sole of its claws has a special texture to prevent its prey, the fish, from slipping."

Every day, very early, during our stay at Fort Lauderdale, Indi vanishes from sight. Among the species he has been able to see are the egret, the grey heron, and an anhinga, a bird of mangrove forests and humid coastal zones similar to the cormorant.

In fact, Indi considers himself a naturalist in the broadest sense of the word. We have already begun to call him "mama Indi," for the wonderful job he is doing of feeding the expedition crew. To be on board the Ranger he is taking a leave of three months without pay from the hospital in Madrid where he works as a chef. Perhaps the patients notice his absence when mealtime comes, but the crew of the Ranger are enchanted with him.

Sole returns to the water

Tuesday, April 19th 2005 - Paloma Larena -

Sole threw herself back into the water today to continue the cleaning of the hull and to take a few photos of its current state. Nuno, our captain, gave her precise instructions about the area and parts to check. "Today I asked here to examine in detail the mileage log, a tiny propeller that records the speed of the boat and the distance traveled, as well as to continue scraping off the rest of the algae that has become attached during our long tropical sojourn." All of the precautions are detailed, since we only have a few days left before leaving Harbour Towne Marina, in Fort Lauderdale (Florida).

: © OCEANA / Paloma Larena

Before doing anything else, Sole checks her camera. Especially the waterproof case that will protect it. First she removes the rubber that seals the case and greases it with sort of transparent silicone. "This is so it doesn't dry out" - she explains to me - "and so water doesn't get in." Apparently it is advisable to repeat this operation every three dives, more or less. "It's been a couple of days since I've done it, so I'm going to give it a good going-over." She also makes sure that the rubber has no cracks, neither a scratch nor the smallest flaw, since that could spoil the camera and ruin the objective of the dive.

Then, immediately before diving, she checks all the dive gear. Once she is perfectly equipped in her neoprene suit, she checks the brush and scraper, each attached to a cord and hanging on either side of her body. They will be her work tools under water, where she will stay for one hour. For Sole, diving in turbid, cloudy water, as the water of ports generally is, fighting with a brush and scraper to detach algae and barnacles is evidently not her favorite thing. "Swimming in filth to scrape filth" - that's how she describes this part of today's work. But she knows that this is part of her mission on the Ranger and she takes it on with determination and a smile, between the jokes of her colleagues Mar and Houssine, who have helped with the preparations. "If something comes up and I have to get out of there, warn me with three knocks on the hull," she and the captain agree before she disappears below one of the Ranger's pontoons.

Soledad Esnaola is 24 years old and is a rescue diver. She has studied marine biology and completed postgraduate work at the University of Queensland (Australia), specializing in cetaceans. She works for ZOEA, the dive and marine research organization that has collaborated with Oceana since the beginning of the Transoceanic Expedition. Sole has been on board almost since the boat began its journey and still she has a few more months on the Ranger left.

The art of sailing with Captain Nuño

Monday, April 18th 2005 - Paloma Larena -

Nuño Ramos is the captain of the Oceana Ranger. His connection with Oceana is the result of years of engagement in environmental causes and, more specifically, with the marine environment. Also, of course, because of his friendship with Xavier Pastor. A few years ago Nuño was one of his collaborators in the founding of MarViva, the organization of civil park rangers that cooperates with the governments of Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras and other Central American countries to protect the waters of the
Marine Conservation Corridor (in the Pacific) and the Mesoamerican Corridor (in the Atlantic).

Already we are practically halfway through the Transoceanic Expedition, which began mid-January in Los Angeles. The crossing of the Atlantic will mark one of the key moments for the expedition crew. And Nuño, telecommunications engineer, Madrid native, 41 years old, will be at the Ranger's helm during the crossing, with the Ranger headed for the archipelago of the Azores. Amidst the frenetic activity of the crew I spoke to him for a few moments.

: © OCEANA / ZOEA

Why did you decide to join this Transoceanic Expedition?

I didn't have to think about it much. I was convinced that sailing aboard the Ranger with Oceana's team of divers and researchers was a fantastic opportunity to work in defense of the oceans. And we're already seeing, with great satisfaction, the first results. Millions of people in Spain, South America, Central America and the United States are already watching the first underwater films produced by our divers. Oceana's is an important mission: show people the fascinating marine world hidden below the surface, and warn them that all of this biodiversity is facing serious threats and we have to do something to protect it. In addition to all that, from a technical point of view, as captain, Oceana's expedition offers me the chance to undertake the thrilling journey of an Atlantic crossing.

What is the Ranger like from a sailing perspective?

It is a solid, resilient boat, made for ocean sailing: keep in mind that it can travel up to 1,200 miles by motor if that should be necessary. It is also very well equipped and specially designed to facilitate marine conservation projects of the type we're undertaking. A distinctive characteristic of catamarans is that they are generally designed to profit from favorable winds. So, when we leave the Bahamas for the Sargasso Sea we should have calm weather, and then when we leave Bermuda we'll follow the west winds and, if the conditions are favorable, the Ranger will sail without motor almost all of the way to the Azores.

What is a typical day like for you as captain?

It changes a lot depending on whether we are at sea or in port. I am responsible for designing our routes and choosing which course to follow, potential alternatives, which sails are best at which moments; following the meteorological conditions; estimating times of arrival and departure from ports; presenting the necessary papers to the port authorities...I spend most of my time in the cockpit or at the navigation table, examining nautical charts and verifying that everything is in order.

: © OCEANA / Houssine Kaddachi

How do the dives of our film team affect the sailing plans?

The catamaran Ranger is always at the service of Oceana's scientific projects; our plans, therefore, revolve around the diving activities as organized by the Research Director. From the Ranger we try to facilitate the divers' work, bringing them in the boat as close as possible to the area where the submersion will take place. Then, we have to transport them in the dingy. Logically, this informs our sailing agenda.

The first port to which we will arrive, after leaving Florida on Thursday (the 21st), will be in the Bahamas. How long will it take us to get there and what will the trip be like?

About a day of sailing. Although it's a short trip, it's complicated because we have to cross the Gulf Stream, which is very wide and very strong, and with the north winds the sea can become very dangerous... Once we're in the Bahamas, there's an added difficulty, which is that the waters are shallow, with sandy bottoms in continuous movement, so that they are not well mapped. So when you get there you can't trust either the GPS or the navigational charts. You could say that this is the area where, as captain, I'll have to practice the art of sailing in its pure form.

What are your feelings approaching the next sail through the Sargasso Sea and the Bermuda Triangle?

I'm very curious to see the Sargasso Sea. Boats never enter it because it isn't on any navigational route, it's not on the way to anything. The normal thing to do is sail north with the Gulf Stream. As regards the Bermuda Triangle, they say that many boats and planes have disappeared here, never to be heard from again, but believing that is like believing in extraterrestrial life.

If the Bermuda Triangle won't be a problem, what other challenge awaits us?

In the leg of the journey between Bermuda and the Azores it's possible that we'll see an iceberg. We'll be close to the estimated limit of icebergs at this time of year. Now, in spring, icebergs are carried down by the cold Labrador Current, which could pose an added risk. It's difficult to know for sure, but there is a definite chance of seeing one. If that happens it will be fascinating.

At Harbour Towne Marina

Sunday, April 17th 2005 - Paloma Larena -

The Ranger has been docked for the past few weeks at Harbour Towne Marina, in Florida, and the crew, captained by Nuno Ramos, is toiling to bring the work to a close. Everything must be in perfect condition before the Atlantic crossing, headed to the European coast.

Amidst everything, Ricardo Aguilar, Director of Research and Projects for Oceana in Europe, has returned to the transoceanic expedition in order to lead the upcoming activities aboard the Ranger. Ricardo has already traveled with the Ranger between the Panama Canal and Cayos Cochinos (Honduras), along with Xavier Pastor, Director of Oceana in Europe.

For my own part this will be my first real experience on board a boat. Generally I conduct my work as Director of Communications for Oceana Europe from a chair at the center of the Oceana office in Madrid. It consists of disseminating information about our campaigns and research projects through various communications media, and of attending to the requests of journalists, with the greatest possible speed. Now I've come to Florida with Ricardo to relieve my colleague Maribel Lopez of the writing of this journal. While I write these lines it is raining torrentially outside.

Today, finally, the mizzen we've been waiting for arrived (for the non-initiated, the mizzen is the stern sail, which helps to stabilize the boat while sailing). Bibi, our Cambados sailor, comments, "my back is ruined from carrying sails, but it was worth it, I'm very happy, finally everything is in place." We have also received the new dingy, which is 4.5 meters and has a 30 horsepower engine. With the dingy, our dive team (videographer Mar Mas, photographer Houssine Kaddachi and ZOEA biologist Sole Esnaola) will be able to work much more comfortably. Also today, Sole slid into her neoprene suit to inspect the hull, clean off the algae and leave it clean for the beginning of a new journey. We are also installing a new life raft.

Every detail, no matter how small it seems, is incredibly important. Because we Oceana expedition crew have another adventure looming even before we cross the Atlantic: in a short time we will be sailing the Ranger straight through the Bermuda Triangle. From Florida we travel to the Bahamas, from there to the Sargasso Sea, and then we will head for Bermuda. But that story is for another day.

Preparing for the Atlantic crossing

Thursday, 31nd March 2005 - Maribel López -

The night watches are peaceful; however, today we saw more boats around us than ever, most of them much bigger than the Ranger. A cruise ship passed close by us at full speed and we could clearly see all the deck lights and its passengers dancing in the disco; it may have benn heading for Fort Lauderdale ( Florida ) just like us.

The cruise ship industry has experienced huge growth in the last few years. Today, more than 2,000,000 Europeans choose to spend their holidays on a cruise shhip. More than fifty companies control around 300 cruise ships, which carry millions of passengers from one side of the planet to the other. Normally, their destinations are the nost beautiful and, in many cases, the most vulnerable places in the world.

These huge ships can carry more than 5,000 passengers, which effectively makes them floating towns, with all the attendant leisure activities ( swimming pools, theatres, discos, etc. ). All this gives rise to all kinds of waste, which is occasionally jettisoned into the sea. In May 2004, Royal Caribbean pledged to improve its fleets and introduce advanced wastewater treatment technology on all its ships, which means that every vessel will comply with strict quality standards. This commitment will help to protect the oceans from pollution.

At seven in the morning, we entered the Towned H. Marina. The Ranger catamaran will be spending a couple of weeks here for minor repairs to prepare for the Atlantic crossing on the next part of its voyage.

Producing these diaries is made possible thanks to the collaboration of everyone on the boat. As you've been able to see, on some days the diary relates incidents that have been experienced simultaneously by the different members of the crew. This has been made possible thanks to conversations with all our on-board colleagues, the video and photo sessions, and referring to the logbooks. Despite the communications difficulties during sailing days, as soon as we manage to get the information through to Madrid it is posted on the website so you can follor us more closely.

It's time to go. Thank you for staying with us. We'll be back in a few days.

Leaving Isla Mujeres

Tuesday, March 29th 2005 - Maribel López -

Finally we are able to leave Isla Mujeres. We head to Florida with the hope of stopping along the way at least once to dive.

One of the things that has surprised me the most on this trip is that, contrary to what I had thought, in this area of the planet the ocean is like an enormous blue desert.

On the longest crossings we barely see any birds or fish, only cruise ships and container ships. Probably the great depths in this area, and the oceanographic conditions, do not allow for rich marine life near the surface in the Honduran, Belizean and Mexican Caribbean.

A small tern accompanies us, winging across our wake; little by little it reaches our prow where it pauses for a few minutes to rest. It takes off and disappears into the horizon.

In the afternoon we have the good luck to catch a common bonito (Sarda sarda). We are glad to know that tonight we'll be eating fresh fish. We clean it and prepare it with onions. At this point, we may have filled our large fish quota for the next two weeks. Because of the high levels of mercury in tuna and similar species all over the world, health authorities advise against consuming these fish more than once or twice a month. Oceana has launched a campaign to raise awareness of this problem, to call for mandatory labeling of these fish as dangerous, and to put an end to mercury releases by chlorine plants (details about the campaign are on our website).

March 30: At dawn we can see in the distance a line that sketches, through the morning fog, Cuba's silhouette. The night has been calm and the morning begins the same. This allows us to observe from the Ranger's deck that between the floating sargassum we can see the small fish that take refuge underneath. Others blend in, like the Sargassum pipefish (Syngnathus pelagicus).

We have passed through some places where there were Portugese man-of-war. This jellyfish, which looks like a medusa, has a painful sting with its long tentacles that can, on occasion, be fatal.

Ricardo Aguilar shouts "whale!!!" We all follow his finger toward where, for a few seconds, he saw the dorsal fin of a whale. It seems to have been a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), but because of the rapidity with which it dove, after showing its tail, and its distance from the boat we couldn't be sure. We wait for more than forty minutes watching every centimeter of ocean around us. It doesn't reappear.

During the sunset, with this almost impossible light of oranges and blues, a pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins appear playing around the Ranger's prow - they jump, zigzag, dive, rocket back to the surface, show off their best pirouettes for minutes on end; then, as the light fades and the day ends, they offer their goodbye in a dance that looks choreographed and with agile and clean movement are lost in the darkness that has by now fallen over the sea.

Tortillas de patatas

Monday, March 28th 2005 - Maribel López -

Still we cannot leave Isla Mujeres. We use the time to buy groceries and prepare tortillas de patatas (potato quiche). During the meal we laugh, remembering a few choice moments of the days past at Cayos Cochinos. For example, when we had completed the study of salinity, etc., and were returning to the base, all of a sudden David looked back and saw that, while our dingy was happily secured to the Ranger's stern, surprise! - the dingy's motor had decided to do its own dive and was completely submerged, fastened to the boat only by the security cord.

The alarm was given; the captain stopped the motors. We launched Operation-Rescue-Overboard-Motor, this motor having a particular determination to see the bottom of the ocean, for something similar had happened in Panama. Finally, we managed between us to get our little motor floating again: Houssine (our photographer on board) dove in to coax it firmly back to the surface. Over our fright and happy - since the motor, once cleaned with fresh water, had started working again - we caught our breath and continued on our way.

Now that we have time to look back on our expedition we realize how fortunate we are to be part of this extraordinary adventure -- extraordinary not only because of what we are doing but because of the people working so hard each day to make all of it possible. I don't want to try to list names because I'm sure I would forget someone, but I also don't want to end this section of the journal without mentioning the exceptional crew of which I've had the luck to be a part.

We pass through the port, between the boats, and any way you look you see various creatures. Flying overhead are dozens of frigate birds; sometimes groups of brown pelicans cruise by, looking for some piece of food or returning to their nests. In truth we only have to keep still for a few moments to find ourselves surrounded by a rich and diverse fauna that always takes us by surprise.

One side of the port is covered in a dense forest of red mangroves (Rhizophora), while the other, where we are stuck, is a mixed ecosystem with both hard and soft substrate, in which the rocks are covered with a multitude of green, brown and red algaes, mostly the genera Enteromorpha, Ulva, Halimeda, Acetabularia, Bryopsis, Avrainvillea, Penicillum, Rhipocephalus, Derbesia, Cladophora, Padina, and Ceramium, as well as small colonies of Caulerpa verticillata. Among them are a few patches of the sea grasses Thalassia and Syringodium.

Among the most common fish - juvenile sergeant fish (Abudefduf saxatilis), parrotfish (Scaridae) and various grunts (Haemulidae), among them the schoolmaster (Lutjanus apodus); needlefish (Belonidae), a few bicolor damselfish (Stegastes partitus), a multitude of larval fish (including a tiny seahorse) and a few gobies. There were also crustaceans, like the ciliated false scilla (Pseudosquilla ciliate), channel clinging crab (Mithrax spinosissimus), and a small Caribbean lobster (Panulirus Argus), mollusks like the chiton (Acanthopleura granulata) and knobby scallop (Chlamys imbricata) and segmented worms that live in tubes, like the variegated feather duster (Bispira variegata).

On land different kinds of iguana keep appearing, passing, eating or simple basking in the sun.

Isla Mujeres, Mexico

25-27 March 2005 - Maribel López -

We are taking refuge from the storm in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. It is only 10 kilometers from the coast of Cancun. The island is 7.5 kilometers long and 500 meters wide. Yesterday the port was closed to maritime traffic because of the bad weather.

In March of 1517 the Spanish expedition of Francisco de Córdova described the island, which was then a sanctuary for the figure of the goddess Ixchel and her entourage, small figures of women, on the island's beaches. For this reason, the island was known from then on as Isla Mujeres (Island of the Women).

In 1850 more than 250 fishermen, pirates and Mayans fleeing the bloody caste wars came to Isla Mujeres and founded the town Dolores. The creation of the Hacienda Villa Alegre by the Spaniard Fermín Mundana y Marecheaga finalized the status of Isla Mujeres as a human nucleus since it covered 40% of the island's total surface. This was the point at which agricultural activities and the raising of livestock began.

At the end of the 19th century Isla Mujeres had a population of 651, with a demarcated urban area, where the maritime landscape with its multitude of birds, sailboats and the bustle of fishermen shaped a picturesque view.

Today this romantic landscape has evolved an image common to tourist areas: the main streets of the town are lined with brightly-colored little shops that sell a wide variety of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings on some shelves, while on others are stacked colorful shirts with `Isla Mujeres' embroidered or glued on, and other souvenirs.

Battered red taxis continually cross the island from one end to the other. The other available forms of transport are rented bicycles, mopeds, or golf carts, which have seating for a maximum of four. Today tourism is the island's principal source of revenue.

Once we are settled in and before we begin our in-depth cleaning of Ranger we visit the town. In our path on the dock we find a crab the size of a spider crab; it must be a Caribbean spider crab. In the city we discover that the culinary offerings encompass all nationalities - there are French restaurants, Italian restaurants, etc.

The next morning, the path that leads from the boat to the dock showers is full of iguanas of different sizes, rough-bodied, brown and ash-colored, slow. When they notice our presence they try to disappear into whatever crack or cavity they can find. One of them makes us laugh, because in her precipitous attempt at flight she only succeeds in hiding her head and front feet, leaving her chubby body and hind legs outside. She has lost her tail, perhaps in a similar escape attempt, and the new tail looks completely different than the rest of the iguana's body, the skin smooth and unwrinkled.

Surprisingly we find a horseshoe crab (Limulus poluphemus), green-brown in color, its body some 35 centimeters in the shape of a horseshoe and the long tail more or less the same length, with large spines. Sadly it is dead, although this gives us the opportunity to examine much more closely a species of primitive origin, very similar to now-extinct trilobites. This one is a species very common in Florida, where the horseshoe crabs reproduce en masse on the beaches. They live in shallow waters with sandy bottom, often in areas where algae grow.

The days at Isla Mujeres pass slowly after such dizzying activity. We take advantage of the time to read our email, call our families and edit our growing photography and film archives. When we are ready to leave we start listening to the weather forecasts again, but we are out of luck; we have to wait another day. The weather is so bad that they are not even allowing boats to enter the area. We will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

The Garifuna

Tuesday, March 22nd 2005 - Maribel López -

Sadly, we leave the Honduran Keys without having had the chance to visit the local Garifuna communities. The ambitiousness of our work agenda and the bad weather has prevented it.

The Garifuna are descendents of the African slaves who, across the vicissitudes of history, established themselves in this area of Honduras but maintained their ethnic and cultural heritage.

A fishing culture here in Cayos Cochinos, they have seen how the abuses in the capture of lobsters with dive tanks and the pressure of trawlers from other zones is seriously affecting their means of survival. In recent years, however, and thanks to the work of the Honduran Coral Reef Foundation, they have become involved in the efforts to protect the keys and have collaborated to seek a ban on these activities. Now they are practicing a sustainable, traditional type of fishing that assures its viability indefinitely. They are the best sentinels, the most effective at ensuring that the law is being obeyed in the protected area of Cayos Cochinos.

Only a few people get to visit Cayo Cochino Mayor, the largest of the islands, which has the keys' only hotel/restaurant/bar. The highest point in the keys is on Cayo Cochino Mayor, at 140 meters above sea level, where a lighthouse sits to guide navigation in the area. If you reach this summit, and the day is clear, you have a 360-degree view of all that lies within a radius of 30 kilometers.

We are leaving behind an ecosystem that harbors various species in danger of extinction - hawksbill turtles, resident and migratory birds, bats, urchins and the endemic boa constrictor.

Thanks to the collaboration and support of the Honduran Foundation for the Protection and Conservation of Cayos Cochinos (Cayos Cochinos Foundation), to their generous and open-hearted participation in all of our activities and to their logistical support, we will take with us an indelible memory of these islands.

We return to the daily routine of life on board, to watches, to sailing around the clock.

In the first hours of the 24th a group of gannets (Sula bassana) appears and stays with us for a stretch; we see them at various points throughout today's crossing. We pass through a few areas where sargassum (Sargassum fluitans) floats thickly on the surface. In one of them, underneath the seaweed, we can see that a triggerfish (Ballistidae) is hiding.

A little swallow seems to be playing between the main sail and the jib - sometimes its flight almost seems to halt, but it stays aloft, suspended in the air. It is waiting for the right moment to land on one of the shrouds or any surface on which it can rest for a few minutes. The changing currents of wind won't allow it. After amusing us with its precise dance the swallow disappears on the horizon.

The clouds are moving across the sun and the wind is rising, so we raise the sails - and reach a speed of 10 knots.

In the afternoon we enter the port of Isla Mujeres, in Mexico. We get gas and fill the water tanks. The weather forecast is bad, and our captain decides we will take refuge here for three days to wait out the storm.

Day 5 at Cayos Cochinos

Monday, March 21st 2005 - Maribel López -

Today we documented a zone of mud and fine sediment situated between the protected area of the Cayos Cochinos archipelago and the Honduran continental coast. This is the site of a good deal of illegal trawling, for many of the shrimping boats do not respect the legal fishing distance from the coast.

These areas are rich in green algae, like those of the genus Caulerpa as well as "chupachups" (Rhipocephalus phoenix) and a few spots of marine sea grass. Afterwards, we returned to Mariposales.

This time we did find crinoids, or feather stars, something which we have been wanting to document since we began the expedition. These echinoderms are spectacular and, inevitably, pull our imagination toward Jurassic times, the era in which they dominated a many marine ecosystems. On this occasion it is a black and white crinoid (Nemaster grandis). A little further, another echinoderm, in this case a cushion sea star (Oreaster reticulatus).

Today seems to be the day of the invertebrates; we've also seen bearded fireworms (Hermodice carunculata), a few anemones that we haven't yet identified, and we paused to film in greater detail a few corals and a giant barrel sponge (Xestospongia muta) - but a small one.

Meanwhile, we continue to observe the life in the closer coral reef. Today there is better visibility and it seems that everything comes around wanting to be seen: sergeant majors (Abudefduf saxatilis), yellowtail damselfish (Microspathodon chrysurus), lane snapper (Lutjanus synagris), yellowtail snapper (Ocyurus chrysurus), parrotfish of various species and sizes, including stoplight (Sparisoma viride), princess (Scarus taeniopterus), redband (Sparisoma aurofrenatum), and yellowtail (Sparisoma rubripinne) parrotfish, as well as numerous grunts, like the French grunt (Haemulon flaviolineatum), bluestriped grunt (Haemulon sciurus), or the Spanish grunt (Haemulon macrostomum).

A few spiny squirrelfish (Holocentrus rufus) hide in the crevices, along with a few Caribbean lobster (Panulirus argus). And not far away, a couple of long-spine urchins (Diadema antillanorum).

Playing among the gorgonians, a few trumpetfish (Aulostomus maculatus) and smooth trunkfish (Lactophrys triqueter). But today, besides the usual black with white spots, we also see the yellow variety, which is found in only a few areas of the Caribbean. And as we return to the boat, we are greeted by a giant barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda) more than a meter long, who - according to what they tell us at the Biological Station - has decided to take up permanent residence in this zone.

Right by the dock we meet a local Garifuna fisherman, in his small blue boat, with a shirt from Milan and red shorts. He is carrying a small red net of light mesh. Under the boat are throngs of larval and juvenile fish that look like flat sardines. He tosses his net into the water above them; it opens like a small parachute. The weights all around its edges cause it to sink slowly. These weights are connected to the center of the net by a nylon cord. When they are all pulled at once, the net closes underneath, trapping the small fish inside. They will be used as bait to capture larger fish. With four of them on a hook, and a few of them scattered in the water nearby, they will lure fish of an acceptable size to be sold in local markets. The coral reefs concentrate the marine biodiversity that allows for the reproduction and development of countless species, some of them of high value - like lobster, conch, and scaled fish.

In the afternoon we have to prepare. First thing tomorrow morning, much to our chagrin, we will leave the Keys - certainly the most beautiful places I have ever visited.

Day 4 at Cayos Cochinos

Sunday, March 20th 2005 - Maribel López -

We never know what the weather will be like. Yesterday afternoon was clear but windy; the night was more calm. Most of the activities we have planned at Cayos Cochinos depend on the weather we have.

Today we are diving at Mariposales and looking for an airplane that crashed here - fortunately no one was hurt. Now the plane may serve as a refuge for various marine species.

We find queen conch, which have been severely overexploited and are now protected in some areas of the Caribbean. We also see our first scorpionfish (Scorpaena plumieri) as well as a barred hamlet (Hypoplectrus puella), many bluehead wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum) of all colors and ages, and tiny cleaning gobies (Gobiosoma spp.) above the brain coral. And in the sand appear the heads of a few garden eels (Heteroconger longissimus).

Unfortunately, though we spend more than twenty minutes trying to find the airplane, we don't. We return to the base, arrive in time to eat, and the rest of the Ranger crew arrives to Cayo Menor. Today we all enjoy a meal together.

In the afternoon we prepare for a beach cleaning. Because of the cold front and the winds which have been blowing from both directions in the last few days, large quantities of plastics, bottles, shoes, cans, sandals, rags and even syringes - some of them with needles - have amassed on the beaches of Cochino Menor. Getting to some of these beaches by land isn't easy. It takes us more than an hour, and we take advantage of the trek to delight in the forest that surrounds the trails. Almost at the summit of the Key, we can observe on either side of the small pass through the undergrowth the contrast with the motley windy zone, where nothing grows beneath the crowns of the trees. Only the sunlight survives in the wind. The regeneration of this part of the forest is very difficult because of the scarcity of nutrients in the soil and the force of the winds. On the other side of the pass, however, where the descent begins, we look down on a spectacular forest with a lush understory. Even the same species of trees grow much taller, their branches are larger and their leaves more abundant.

With six people cleaning for approximately 40 minutes, we fill more than eight large trash bags. The sad truth: glass, iron and other spilled material sink to the bottom because of their weight, paper disintegrates little by little, many of the contaminants that make their way to the sea are invisible, but plastics and soda cans are harder to hide. It is an irrefutable proof of the lack of consideration and respect that persists even today; some people still think of the ocean as a massive trash can.

The impact of human activity, including across great distances, is important. These beaches are nesting sites for endangered hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata). Imagine a sea turtle trying to lay her eggs on a beach covered in cans, plastics, and other trash.

This area has been affected by natural disturbances like hurricanes and the warming of surface ocean waters resulting from global climate change. This phenomenon provokes coral bleaching, leaving the coral dead.

Exhausted, we return with our enormous bags of trash to the base camp, hoping that the next visitors will find the paradise the Cochino Menor truly is.

Day 3 at cayos Cochinos

Saturday, March 19th 2005 - Maribel López -

Everyone aboard, the Oceana Ranger heads for the dock at Cayo Cochino Menor. We have barely been docked five minutes when the launch "Tiburon" arrives with the journalists from Channel 7, of the Honduran television show TeleCeiba. During the presentation of all the equipment we tell them all about the Ranger expedition.

This morning we'll go out with the Ranger to do a study of hydraulic parameters of salinity, oxygenation, temperature and turbidity. We will use a Secchi disc to measure the transparency of the water; the rest of the data will be taken with a multi-parameter probe. We will also undertake a study of the currents using a drifting buoy, or currentmeter, which consists of two buoys that support a panel of canvas that hangs downward because it is weighted on one end. We will be accompanied by park scientists.

After we've eaten, part of the team goes diving in the small paradise we have here just in front of the area designated for the science station, the marine prairies in which, our first day here, we were so delighted by the richness and variety of life.

The grunts (Haemulidae) seem to be lazily awaking from a nap. Between the sea grasses and the reef we find a multitude of tiny larvae, a few donkey dung sea cucumbers (Holothuria mexicana), banded coral shrimp (Stenopus hispidus), yellowline arrow crabs (Stenorhynchus seticornis), reef urchins (Echinometras viridis), bearded fireworms (Hermodice carunculata), a giant anemone (Condylactis gigantea) on a gorgonian and various species of parrotfish (Scaridae). But we can't see much more because a force 5 wind picks up, which makes diving difficult and significantly reduces visibility underwater.

The other half of the team undertakes the boa constrictor monitoring project - the boa constrictor is an endemic snake species in the Keys. This activity happens at least once a week. The trail to the highest point on the island begins behind the canteen, where we gather enough water for the trip. Immediately we enter a dry forest of Encino trees, a type of oak, the fruit of which are small, velvety acorns. Ficus trees growing on other species, bromeliads growing on the ground and on other trees, as orchids do. The tree commonly known as the "tourist tree," because its red bark peels in thin strips, is one of the most dominant. Innumerable species of trees and bushes surround us. But the thing that surprises us most during the hike are the small and large hermit crabs called "coconut crabs." Reptiles like the chameleon, on their throat shines a blue spot, or in some cases red, that functions as an advertisement during the mating season.

We find a boa constrictor perfectly camouflaged in a small Encino. It looks like part of the bark. Its colors are clear browns, it is almost one meter long, weighs 450 grams, and is a female. We attach the microchip. Each of the monitored boas has one. This allows detailed monitoring of the growth, development, movement and behavior of the specimen.

Along the beach we can see the Caribbean palm trees, most of them affected by the disease called "lethal yellowing," caused by a black beetle that carries a virus from which the trees, once they have been infected, can not recover. They remain standing, empty of life and losing their leaves, the trunk of the palm pointing in a fragile lament toward the sky. Other species that inhabit the beaches are ocean almonds and ocean grapes.

It is almost night, and we return to the project base by circling the island, walking on the shore. We can look back on a spectacular landscape; the abrupt emergence of the Key gives it a hardness hidden beneath the thickness of its flora.

In the darkness of the night it is almost impossible not to trip and catch your feet in the holes the crabs have dug. The Keys have as many surprises above the water as beneath it.

Wind and waves at cayos Cochinos

Friday, March 18th 2005 - Maribel López -

Yesterday we decided that four of us would go visit the indigenous Garifuna communities in various parts of the small keys, with the object of documenting their traditional way of life and sustainable exploitation of the waters that surround their villages.

To document the daily life of the community we wake at five in the morning, prepare the filming equipment and go to the dock just as dawn is breaking. The gray of the sky gives way to blue, then orange and finally to the yellow of day, despite the clouds.

We wait for Elías Aguilar to bring us to Cayo Chachahuate. Children from this key and others are sent off each day in tiny boats to the community's school, which sits on the eastern end of Cayo Mayor. The boats are like inter-island school busses. Finally we hear from Elias that, because the night before had been windy and the water today is rough, the kids don't have school. So there is a change of plans.

The wind picks up; even from shore we can see the currents it is creating. A brown pelican takes advantage of the opportunity to show off his first catch of the morning. In a razor-sharp flight, almost touching the waves, he locates his breakfast and, seconds later, with an unorthodox landing, plunges his head into the water and captures his prey. He's so close to us that we can see the last thrashes of the fish in the pocket of his beak. This show alone is worth the painful early morning.

It starts to rain - slowly at first, but a few minutes later the rain is intense. We decide to postpone our trip, but despite the bad weather the divers will do the dives they have planned for this morning. They take extra security measures and head out for Cayo Gallo.

The dive is at 16 meters, and the water is turbid because of the storm: the torrents carry sediment and other matter that remains suspended in the water, which makes it harder to see species. Even so we manage to find a giant hermit crab that carries an enormous queen conch as its "house." It is an area of dispersed sea grass, mostly turtle grass but with a wide variety of brown and green algaes -- Ditctyota spp., Halimeda spp., and an endearing plant Mar has baptized "chupachups." More officially, it's known as Rhipocephalus phoenix.

Gradually the weather improves, and we head toward the northern point of Cayo Menor, where we find, among other species, blue tang feeding on algae and a few groupers, like the Nassau grouper and black grouper lurking in the landscape of crevices and caves. When we try to film a Nassau grouper, a hogfish swims out from behind it. There are also lots of blue chromis and fairy basslets.

This area harbors a range of gorgonians - especially Plexauridae, sea plumes and whips - and a few lettuce, star, elliptical star, flower and maze corals. It is also rich in barrel, black-ball, tube and vase sponges.

In general, as has been the case in all of the dives, the coral seems to be in good shape. There are only a few broken elk and stag horn corals, possibly as a result of Hurricane Mitch, a few with signs of bleaching, others with white-spot disease and a few gorgonians with aspergillosis, an infection caused by a fungus that creates lesions.

The weather precludes another trip in the afternoon, so we use the time to fill the tanks with compressed air and to clean all of the equipment thoroughly. We also prepare and edit images and footage since we are expecting several Honduran journalists tomorrow, who are coming to document Oceana's Ranger expedition.

Diving at Cayos Cochinos

Thursday, March 17th 2005 - Maribel López -

We eat breakfast at 7 in the morning on Cayo Cochino Menor, prepare picnic lunches for the divers, and the Ranger expedition divides into two groups for the activities of the day.

The research team and divers climb aboard the Honduran Coral Reef Fund's launch "Tiburón," which is waiting for us at the dock. The first group is transported to the Oceana Ranger, which has been moored at a buoy in the inlet for greater security during the night.

On the Ranger, we finalize the last details to conduct a bathymetric study in the northern zone of the marine park...

The operation will consist of taking depth measurements at different selected points. Once the points have been selected and their depth determined, buoys can be installed to delimit the protected areas of the marine park in what is called the Northern Macrozone, an area approximately 10 miles in diameter. Elias Aguilar, one of the park's resource guards ("guarda recursos"), accompanies Oceana's Xavier Pastor and Ricardo Aguilar and helps us to coordinate the project. The Fund has decided to call its staff in Cayos Cochinos "resource guards" rather than the classic "park guards" ("guarda parques") to emphasize the fact that their work, in protecting the natural environment, is intended principally to safeguard the responsible use of the marine resources, and thereby guarantee their sustainability for the local Garifuna communities that fish these waters in a controlled way.

With the aid of GPS, nautical charts, and the Ranger's eco-sonar [Editor's note: If anyone knows how to translate "ecosondadores," let me know!] that will help us determine depth and the character of the bottom, we begin navigating. We select and visit ten sites, then return to the base around five in the afternoon. We have contributed to the demarcation of the marine protected area around Cayos Cochinos. Once this phase of work has been finalized the Fund will be able to install the buoys that indicate to boaters that this is a zone subject to stringent regulations.

Meanwhile, the dive team, led by Mar Mas and including Houssine Kaddachi, Soledad Esnaola and Inés García, has completed two dives, the first at a depth of 30-40 meters and the second at 20 meters. Both have been at Roatan Bank, north of Cayo Mayor. They are always accompanied by one of the Fund's biologists, Francisco Canañas, and are always under the watchful eye, from the surface, of Bibi Alvarez, one of Oceana's sailors and the woman tasked with ensuring the safety of the dive operation.

Once again the divers have met a Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus), a few black durgon (Melichthys niger), barracudas (Sphyraena barracuda), yellowtail snapper (Ocyurus chrysurus), French angel fish (Pomacanthus paru), foureye butterflyfish (Chaetodon capistratus) and banded butterflyfish (C. striatus), yellowtail damselfish (Microspathodon chrysurus), blue vase sponges (Callyspongia plicifera), and long-spined urchins (Diadema antillarum). This urchin suffered a severe decline in almost all of the Caribbean because of an epidemic that in some areas killed 90 percent of the population. Curiously, the opposite has happened outside of the urchin's natural habitat; as an introduced species, it has become a plague in some areas, like the Canary Islands.

They also encountered another of the target species of this expedition: a barrel sponge. These organisms grow very slowly, can live for up to 500 years and are extremely sensitive, so that one brush by a diver can destroy them. They can grow to a height of two meters.

We wait until nightfall and then dive again, this time at Pelican Point, at a depth of 40 meters.

The area is rich in gorgonians of every kind: common sea fans (Gorgonia ventalina), Venus' sea fans (Gorgonia flabellum), sea plumes (Pseudopterogorgia spp.), sea rods (Plexaurella spp.), sea whips (Ellisella barbadensis), etc. And on all of them we find gorgonian stars or basket stars (Astrophyton muricatum) and a few prosobranchia gastropods like those called "flamingo tongues" (Cyphoma gibbosum), which feed on coral polyps.

Luck is on our side and once again we find many other species, including gorgeous spotted drums (Equetus punctatus), longspine squirrelfish (Holocentrus rufus), foureye butterflyfish (Chaetodon capistratus), Caribbean lobster (Panulirus argus), channel clinging crab (Mithrax spinosissimus), queen angelfish (Holacanthus ciliaris), blue tang (Acanthurus coeruleus), and bluehead wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum), among many others. Not to mention important shoals of spadefish (Chaetodipterus faber) and horse-eye jack (Caranx latus). This last is one of the overexploited species in this area.

The day has been intense. Eating dinner we make plans for tomorrow.

Cayos Cochinos, Honduras

Wednesday, March 16th 2005 - Maribel López -

We arrive at night at La Ceiba - at Lagoon Marina, specifically - and happily we are met at the mouth of the port and shown to our mooring. Suddenly the vastness of the ocean is replaced by a narrow corridor of green water lined by lush, extravagant vegetation, mangroves, herons that wake in the darkness at our approach and flap their wings before returning to their chosen branch to pass the night.

The next day we spend filling water tanks, buying food, and handling other logistics that always take more time than you expect. At this point two of our crew disembark; we are sad to see them go but glad to know they will join us again in Florida.

When we leave the port we are even more aware of the variety of plant species around us. In this stretch we encounter the boats called "tanqueros," which carry dozens of "pangas" (little canoe-shaped boats). And why? When they find an area rich in lobsters, the divers fan out in the pangas to cover the entire capture zone. Dive lobster fishing, practiced on a large scale, is not only depleting the resource but also causing the paralysis and death of dozens on fishers in Miskito and Garifuna Indian communities in this area; the divers must complete up to 12 dives each day, without adequate equipment and without the necessary intervals in between.

Looking behind us again we see the mountain range Nombre de Dios, with its highest peak, Pico Bonito, which stretches roughly 2800 meters from sea level. All of the range is a protected area.

Little by little the port recedes, and ahead of us appear small white and green spots. They become the profiles of small islands, keys and dozens of submerged peaks called "bancos" that correspond to the group of underwater mountains called Cayos Cochinos. In recent years, Hurricane Mitch - in addition to prior coral bleaching - caused serious damage to the area's ecosystems. Hawksbill turtles nest on some of the keys' beaches.

As we arrive, a launch called "Tiburon" comes out to meet us. It belongs to the Honduran Coral Reef Fund, also known as the Cayos Cochinos Fund (Fundación Cayos Cochinos).

The Ranger divers go out to check their recently-purchased equipment - cameras, cases, etc. For their first dive in the keys they go to Pelican Point, at the west end of Cayo Cochino Mayor. The rest of the crew undertakes the necessary equipment repairs and transfers to prepare for the four days of work ahead. Cochino Menor is the operations and research base of the Marine Natural Monument of Cayos Cochinos, so here there are laboratories, cabins where scientists are housed, park rangers and sailors from the Honduran navy, all of whom help to guard the protected area. They are the only inhabitants of the key. Well, them and a pair of parrots and two hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) barely five months old who swam here at the end of last year's nesting season and will soon be set free.

As has been the case in all of the sites we have visited so far, we are overwhelmed by the warm reception we receive and by the willing collaboration of the NGOs that, working with Central American governments, are managing these protected areas in a professional and exemplary manner.

When our colleagues return from the dive, all the equipment fine, they describe the number of species they have seen and filmed, including a Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) - one of the objectives of our expedition, since this species is disappearing throughout the Caribbean, targeted both by commercial overexploitation and by heavy sport fishing. We are all excited.

Hoping to see similar marvels in shallower waters, we put on our masks and fins and find our reward: barely ten meters from the dock we find, first, a meadow of marine grasses. Specifically, this is turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum) mixed with manatee grass (Syringodium filiforme), in which there are a few sea urchins (Lytechinus variegatus), snapper, and a torpedo ray (Narcine sp.). But a bit farther out, a shallow coral reef with a multitude of black gorgonias (Plexaura spp.), Venus' fans (Gorgonia flabellum), staghorn coral (Acropora prolifera), encrusting coral (Montastraea sp.), star coral (Solenastrea sp.), brain coral (Diploria sp.), maze coral (Meandrina meandrites) and lettuce coral (Agaricia sp.). And growing on many of them, the beautiful Christmas tree worm (Spirobranchus giganteus).

In this extraordinary oasis we see, in just a few minutes, foureye butterflyfish (Chaetodon capistratus), blue tang (Acanthurus coeruleus), French grunts (Haemulon flavolineatum), tomtates (Haemulon aurolieneatum), longfin damselfish (Stegastes diencaeus), sargeant majors (Abudefduf saxatilis), brown chromis (Chromis multilineata), redtail parrotfish (Sparisoma chysopterum), bluehead wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum), yellow goatfish (Mulloidichthys martinicus), longspine squirrelfish (Holocentrus rufus), trumpetfish (Aulostomus maculatus), rock hind (Epinephelus adscensionis), red-spotted hawkfish (Amblycirrhitus pinos), pargos or lane snapper (Lutjanus synagris) and many other species that we don't have time to identify.

And over us, magnificent frigatebirds (Fregata magnificens) and brown pelicans, (Pelecanus occidentalis), some of them fishing.

At La Ceiba, Honduras, planning dives

Monday, 14th March 2005 - Maribel López -

During the night of the 13th of March we had very good wind and were able to sail for several hours. With a wind speed of 25-30 knots and only the jib up we went at 9-10 knots. It was a wonderful feeling after so many hours traveling by motor - since until now we have had only headwinds or no wind at all.

First thing in the morning, we saw a flying fish (Hirundichthys speculiger) of almost 25 centimeters that had landed on the deck.

It was apparent that on one of its flights it had chosen an unfortunate direction and ended up on the catamaran. Sometimes it's interesting to stop and look at the meaning of scientific names to see how it is that we have come to name a species. "Hirundichthys" roughly translates to something like "swallow fish."

During the rest of the day we found ourselves in much the same position we've been in since we left the Panama Canal. We didn't see a single boat along our route, not a single dolphin, and only one pair of frigate birds (Fregata magnificiens) approached our stern.

In the afternoon, when we found ourselves between Guanaja Island and the Honduran coast, we noticed that, less than half a mile away, the sea was boiling. In a little while we saw a shoal of tuna mounting an attack on another school of small pelagic fish. A few gulls arrived at the site to take advantage of the flurry and to profit from the hunt.

The distraction didn't last long and we continued on our way toward La Ceiba, which we reached by nightfall.

In the morning we had the chance to enjoy the scenery of the port, encircled by mangroves and by gorgeous mountains completely covered in tropical vegetation.

While we toiled to clean the boat and get rid of all the saltpeter, there were, all around us, hummingbirds, butterflies, toads, beetles the size of a fish, black mangroves (Avicenia germinans) nearly 20 meters high and everything else one could hope to find in this ecosystem. And among the roots of the mangroves a multitude of young fish, one or two cichlids and angelfish that swam back and forth from our hull to the mangrove forest.

Early in the morning we had the chance to meet with Adrian Oviedo, the Director of the Foundation for the Protection of the Reefs of Honduras (Fundación para la Protección de los Arrecifes de Honduras), who is leading the conservation Project at Cayos Cochinos.

We coordinated our work plans for the upcoming days. We hope that we will not only succeed in documenting the ecosystem of these keys, but also that our work will be useful to those who are working so hard and so effectively here.

We all felt energized by the warmth and graciousness of our Honduran colleagues. The truth is that it is an incredible privilege to work with people as dedicated and as professional as the staff of MarViva or the Fundación de Cayos Cochinos.

Now we have almost a week of work here, during which we will try to document different parts of the keys and assess their conservation status. There are a few areas of complete protection, while others are more open to tourism and fishing. We want to evaluate their respective ecological condition. It will also be critical to keep in mind that these ecosystems have suffered a few serious episodes of coral bleaching and sicknesses like white-band disease, as well as the damaging impact of Hurricane Mitch.

We are also very interested in documenting species that are characteristic of this zone, like the Caribbean lobster (Panulirus argus), horse-eye jack (Caranx latus) or queen conch (Strombus gigas), because of their economic importance to specific fisheries. But we don't want to ignore other species, like the Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus), which is disappearing in many areas of the Caribbean.

Most of our work, however, will be to assess the status of the corals, like staghorn coral (Acropora sp.), boulder star coral (Montastraea sp.) or hydrocorals like fire coral (Millepora sp.).

In just a few hours we will begin the dives and everyone will be anxious to get underwater. All of our divers - our colleagues from ZOEA (Inés and Sole) along with our videographer, Mar, and our photographer, Houssine - are impatient to get back to work. We will try to do a few night dives since that is the time when many of the reef species are most active.

Full and hectic days are ahead, but we are all ready and excited to begin.

Following the Mosquito Coast

Friday, March 11th 2005 - Maribel López -

After having left the Panama Canal and the dozens of anchored boats waiting at Colón to pass through to the Pacific, we set our course northward through the waters of Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. We have traveled almost 400 miles since then and, except for yesterday, when we had, at some moments, waves higher than two meters, the sailing has been fairly calm. We've kept a good distance from the coast; perhaps it is for that reason that we have seen practically nothing - neither boats nor dolphins, and hardly any seabirds. Only three gulls (Larus spp.), two shearwaters (Puffinus spp.) resting on drifting wood, and a royal tern (Sterna maximus) that crossed our prow. This area of Central America is the famous - but little visited - Mosquito Coast, popularized a decade ago in the Harrison Ford film (based on the novel by Paul Theroux) where Ford plays an adventuring father determined to create an ice factory in the middle of the jungle.

Aside from this, we've had to content ourselves with the flying fish (Exocoetidae), which, it's clear, lent their name to French " Exocet " missiles - best known, sadly, for their use during the Falklands War - for their low, razor-sharp flight across the waves.

The scattered spots of seaweed that we come across on our route are not dense and are distributed in irregular patterns. We collected a few samples to identify and to observe up close. They were well-known species like Gulf seaweed (Sargassum fluitans), a brown seaweed that does not live fixed to the substrate but rather continually drifting. We also saw a few "bunches" of another brown seaweed, Cystoseiracea Turbinaria turbinata.

The stalks of the seaweed that we're finding are frequently colonized by little lepadomorph cirripedes (little barnacles), bryozoans and minute annelids. Underneath the floating seaweed there are usually little fish and larvae. This is a common behavior for many small marine organisms, which use anything that floats - including trash - to hide themselves under, taking advantage of the protection from predators.

Right now we are north of the coast of Nicaragua and we have met the first fishing boats. They appear to be trap fishermen, possibly for the capture of Caribbean lobster (Panulirus argus), which is an extremely important fishery in this zone.

The two-meter waves and turbulence left the novices in a bit of chaos for a few hours, but once the motion sickness passed we were in fine spirits once again, trying to see everything in sight of our binoculars between one guard and the next.

Now we continue on our way toward Cayos Cochinos and the Bay Islands in Honduras. It is an area of great biological richness where we hope to observe the state of the corals and see how they are recovering from the two episodes of bleaching they suffered during the 90s and from the damage done by hurricane Mitch.

Cayos Cochinos is a beautiful group of keys and islands located near the coast. It is a true paradise; two of the islands have been preserved in their natural state and have not been exploited because they are difficult to access. The keys have a diversity of riches, which at the marine level begins with the most virgin reefs in Honduras. They also have a wide variety of flora and fauna on land.

While we are heading to La Ceiba, the location in Honduras where we were planning to complete the immigration and customs procedures, as well as to get in touch with our colleagues at the Honduran Foundation for Coral Reefs (Fundacion Hondureña de los Arrecifes Coralinos), we meet, first thing in the morning, more fishermen - those we saw during the night. And at dawn, a shearwater on a plastic jar that is floating near us.

: © OCEANA

Around ten in the morning two spotted dolphins appear (Stenella frontales), but they stay hardly a half a minute and then pass on. Two hours later the two creatures return and this time they remain with us a longer time. The larger of the two has the clear spots that make this species distinct covering almost its entire body, but the younger dolphin only has a few.

The wind is not favorable, so we hardly use the sails and instead travel with the motor most of the time. The Ranger has two 150-horsepower Isuzu motors, which gives us an average speed of six and a half knots.

Once we have recovered our appetite, lost during the past two days' swells, we prepare a meal of definite Mediterranean character: ham, cheese, and bread with olive oil and garlic, which tastes heavenly to us and gives us sufficient energy to tolerate a few more hours under the sun.

In the afternoon, a few frigate birds (Fregata magnificiens) begin to fly over us and, of course, there are still our friends, ever-present during these days, the flying fish.

We have a little problem with our fresh water, so we interrupt the crossing for a moment, shutting off the motors and searching for the fresh water leak. We all take advantage of the moment to take a dip; the sun is intense.

We start the motors once again, course 270 º W. Soon we will arrive at La Ceiba, and from there to Cayos Cochinos.

Passage through the Panama Canal

Wednesday, March 9th 2005 - Maribel López -

We get to Panama and go directly to the dock where the Ranger is. Our colleagues from the expedition are there waiting to make the crew substitution, filling the fuel tanks and generally preparing the boat to cross the Panama Canal.

Throughout the day we watch the fish in whose company we are waiting. Dozens of balloonfish (Diodon holocanthus) and a multitude of small shoals of baby fish surround us. They approach the Ranger and the pier and nibble at the algae that grows in the cracks or against the posts of the dock. Their movements are slow and we can see them with complete clarity; we can even touch them...

A little further out there are a few Panamanian sergeant majors (Abudefduf troshelii), much more agile, that never stop looking for some crumb fallen to the sea to devour.

Further still dozens of boats crowd together, each waiting its turn to pass through the Canal. Ro-Ros, oil tankers, container ships...and not all that far from us a pair of huge tuna freezer ships.

The crew from the MarViva boat return to Golfito, their base in Costa Rica, having accompanied and supported the Oceana Ranger over the past few days. Without their help our work would have been immeasurably more difficult to complete.

Very early, almost at dawn, we leave Flamenco Marine with the goal of crossing the Panama Canal; in only 15 hours we will be in the Caribbean. The canal has enabled passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic since 1914. In the past year approximately 14,000 boats have used it, mostly Chinese boats carrying iron and oil.

Accompanied by brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis), Bonaparte's gulls (Larus philadelphia) and a few royal terns (Sterna maximus), we begin our crossing.

After a few hours of waiting we begin to cross the locks, slowly. We receive support from both sides of the canal; in the passage with us there is a boat of tourists who are extremely interested in learning about Oceana and what we are doing. It's not every day that they cross the canal with boats of our size, with other large cargo ships waiting their turn. These latter ships are aided by locomotives on both ends of the canal, which measures approximately 33 meters in width.

Side by side the boats begin to rise with the level of water; the locks have closed and little by little we float upward. Twenty minutes later we make a maneuver - we release the poles and we pass from one to another until we reach the next lock. The trip is slow but throughout we have a feeling of security, and there doesn't seem to be any great risk. One interesting thing is that from time to time there are boats making the transit from the opposition direction, which makes the operation more complicated.

There are three series of lockgates to pass through: Miraflores, Pedro Miguel and a final set that opens into Gatún lake.

The webcams installed at Miraflores and Gatún allow our colleagues working in Oceana's offices to share this historic moment in the Ranger's first transatlantic expedition. We communicate with them via a satellite text message system, and they convey their excitement at being able to see us - live! - from a computer screen and using the web page of the Panama Canal.

Once again terns, frigate birds, and a cormorant or two appear along the way signaled by buoys and, of course, the ever-present buzzards. As we watch the scenery of the canal passage and look towards the trees, we discern a two-toed sloth (Choloepus spp.) resting in the branches.

Before we pass through the last lock, we must await our turn in a freshwater lake encircled by tiny islets, very lush, with a great diversity of vegetation. We take advantage of the time to refresh ourselves for a few brief moments.

Once we have passed through the last lock we enter the Caribbean. We anchor in Colón, where we spend the night, and where we prepare for the journey to Cayos Cochinos.

Panama City and goodbye

Tuesday, March 8th 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

After a week with only Coiba's blue waters and the deep green of its forest in sight it is a shock to come to a city. The capital of Panama is a battalion of skyscrapers standing guard along the bay - a city as surely as New York.

There are no fish on land, but there is a group of people working hard to protect Coiba and Panama's marine assets, and our time here has been an opportunity for busy collaboration. On Monday we held a joint press conference with MarViva to announce the arrival of the Ranger, discuss some preliminary conclusions about the conservation status of Coiba, and show a preview of Mar's documentary footage. The next day, lo and behold, we were front page news: one of Hussein's photos of a coquettish seahorse welcomed us to breakfast. The level of media interest in Coiba now is testament to the success of MarViva and their colleagues at the Smithsonian in making the park an issue of national importance...

The Smithsonian: Here in Panama City the Smithsonian has its largest research outpost - the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Hundreds of scientists from all over the world convene at the Institute to study coral, rainforest, and all manner of tropical life. Not least among them are Dr. Todd Capson and Dr. Alicia Ibañez. Alicia has been here for five years, researching the flora of Coiba. Before the closure of the prison colony she worked among prisoners and police. Todd has been closely involved in the development of the law and fishing regulations for Coiba National Park. Both are experts on an island that holds tremendous possibilities for science - because of its incredibly high rate of endemism (species that exist nowhere else), for example, and the presence of plants and corals with untapped medical potential - and it was a pleasure to meet them, see the Smithsonian's comprehensive facilities, exchange information and plans.

All of this was earlier in the week. I'm sitting now in the Panama City airport; I'm going home. The Ranger continues on through the Panama Canal and into the Caribbean. In Honduras it will meet up with the Honduran Foundation for Coral Reefs and will be looking to document illegal fishing, cruise ship pollution, and the fallout of poorly planned development along Central America's eastern coast. From here forward Maribel López of Oceana Europe will be sending these blog reports. Thank you so much for following our progress so far, and I hope you'll stay with us for all that is still ahead.

An unusual ceremony - graduation of Coiba's Ecopolice

Wednesday, March 2nd 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

At perfect noon we are sitting on damp wooden benches atop a hill on Coiba with thirty uniformed police. One by one they stride to the podium at the front of the open air hall, give an extravagant salute, and accept a diploma rolled in bamboo from the Vice Governor of the Province of Veraguas. In the audience, besides us Ranger crew, are park rangers, MarViva staff, two television reporters and a handful of model convicts serving the last of their time.

This is the graduation ceremony of Coiba's first class of Eco Police. Coiba was a prison; now it is a park, and as the conventional police leave the ecological police are coming to stay. Unlike the park rangers, they can carry guns, and they lend an authority to the implementation of the park's new laws for which everyone seems grateful.

We spent all the morning on land. It was just barely enough time to figure out exactly who is living on this island and why. First, there are conventional police, who are leaving. Second, the graduating class of eco police, some of whom will stay. Third, prison inmates. After the prison on Coiba closed, and the inmates were sent to the mainland, the police who remained on shore realized the extent of the work necessary to maintain the base and requested that a handful of well-behaved prisoners be sent back to help them out.

One of them, Antonio, gave us a tour. The base looks like a semi-abandoned city. There are concrete barracks along the beach, a roofless church presided over by vultures, a cluster of administrative buildings in varying stages of disrepair. The prison buildings themselves are overgrown with vines but the rusted bars are as unyielding as ever and you can still swing a cell door shut with a clang. In each cell, Antonio says, lived 15 to 20 men. Yes, it is true that the guards locked themselves in while the prisoners roamed free at night and yes, there was violence of every kind. There are two cemeteries on Coiba where those who died here are buried in anonymous graves.

That all seems very far away. Today, now, the graduating eco police stand stiffly in their army green suits, black caps, black boots tied to the knee and sing the anthem of the Panamanian police. Birds join. Down the hill, across the trees and concrete cell barracks, we can see the blue of the bay.

Who would believe that there is an island in the Pacific inhabited by scientists, park rangers, convicts and nature police who live and work together? But this is Coiba - a jail become a haven that prisoners help to guard, a marine sanctuary protected through a century's chaos by the very presence of danger. What a story. What a place. The park rangers and eco police seem happy to have us, and Oceana's Carlos Perez is invited to join in the ceremony. It is an honor to collaborate with this group - to have the chance to help, with our documentary efforts, promote the conservation of this island in whatever way we can.

Work at Coiba

Tuesday, March 1st 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

It is late in the afternoon, the sun is about to set, and after a morning of diving, filming and interviews on land everyone is - briefly - back on the boat. The compressor is rattling away on the stern deck, filling tanks. It's deafening. Thankfully it won't be long until the tanks are ready and the film crew heads off again for a night dive. In the time we spend anchored the boat is like an airport. People come, people go, news bulletins flash over the radio or across one of the cabin's white boards, fleetingly, and in the interest of sanity it is best to accept that you will never know exactly what is going on.

Later in the night we will all be onboard. Sandra and whatever willing volunteers are around will make a meal; at the dinner table there will be time to talk about the day past and the day to come.

Patrolling Coiba

Monday, February 28th 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

These are skills I never thought I would need: the ability to drop an empty bucket over the side of a ship and have it hit the water at the perfect angle to immediately fill, so it can be pulled hand over hand back over the rail and poured over a head full of shampoo; the ability to spread my own back with sunscreen without missing a spot; the capacity to sleep for an hour or two at any time, day or night -- and rarely more. Also the ability to tie a clove-hitch knot, which is the simplest thing in the world when someone explains it and somehow impossible when the rope is in your hands alone. All these things are important, living on the boat.

But on to more serious matters: Yesterday was the first Coiba marine patrol since the implementation of the new fishing laws. We left in the afternoon on MarViva III. It was clear; as we moved northwest off the main island we passed other, smaller, bodies of land -- the islands Rancherita and Coibita. On patrol were two MarViva crew (Stanley Canales, the boat captain, and Miguel Delgado) as well as Rodrigo Rodriguez, Coiba's chief park ranger, and Rolando Ruiloba, the director of the park, from Panama's environmental agency (ANAM). We spent the way out talking about Coiba, the new fishing laws, and the collaboration between ANAM and MarViva, which has so far been seamless.

And a good thing, because there is clearly a need for it. The park rangers say that with the gradual closure of the prison camps emboldened fishing boats flocked to Coiba's shores. There was every manner of fishing -- commercial and artisanal, shrimp trawling, gillnetting, longlining, shark finning, diving for conches -- and in a few months an incredible amount of damage was done. It was only with the depletion of resources and the beginning of the patrols, the rangers say, that the boats backed off. There are far fewer now and the rangers hope to keep it that way.

At five o'clock there were dolphins next to us, many, but not for long. At six we pulled in a buoy. Longliners leave their buoys in the water to mark the sites where they fish and use them as anchors for their lines. This one Rodrigo hauled in and tied it at the stern.

And then, around seven, there was a boat. It was already dark. We could just barely make out the contours of a small islet ahead when a light appeared on the horizon. In a few moments it was two lights, then three, and suddenly, when I thought we must still be a mile away, the boat was beside us. It was an artisanal boat -- wooden, very small and very dark; it was because the lights were so modest that I had supposed them to be distant. It seemed to tilt in the water. Of the four-man crew some looked like boys, and they perched on the edge of the boat bare-chested. Rodrigo's voice came through the waves and rain -- "permit, they have a permit" -- and I was relieved. So this was the kind of fishing that can happen in the park. This was ok.

Coiba

Sunday, February 27th 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

La Isla de Coiba is the largest island in the Central American Pacific - approximately three times the size of Manhattan, or twenty times larger than Coco´s - and only 12 miles off the coast of Panama. It is the site of the Central Pacific´s most extensive coral reef system; a feeding and calving ground for blue whales, humpback whales, orcas and tropical spotted dolphins; and home to sharks, manta rays, billfish and tuna. Four species of threatened sea turtles nest on Coiba´s beaches. Crocodiles patrol its mangrove-lined shores. On the Panamanian mainland the island is famous, but not for its biological richness. For the past century the word "Coiba" has inspired fear.

Until last year Coiba was a federal prison. Panama´s most dangerous convicts were sent here - dangerous either to society or to the prevailing political regime. The jail was dispersed, with prison camps at various points around the island, and further dispersed because, according to legend, the prisoners were given leave to roam the island at night... while prison guards and timid inmates locked themselves in. Violence was a fact, not all of it perpetrated by man; in addition to the crocodiles, 15 species of snake, including lethal fer-de-lance and coral snakes, live on Coiba.

The prison population gradually dwindled as the twentieth century came to a close, but still The Panama Guide (Second Edition, 2001) warned visitors that "due to the continuing presence of the penal colony the safest place to anchor is off the biological station located on Punta Machete on the northeast tip of Coiba... The police are very friendly and if you want to go on any island trails one of them, equipped with weapons, will go as a guide and protector." Of Jicaron, a smaller island in the Coiba archipelago (in addition to Coiba the group includes eight smaller islands and 40 islets), the guide writes: "This island, separated from Coiba by a wide channel has strong currents which make it safe from any lurking fugitives. No one lives here and the beauty of the lush landscape can take your breath away. We rated Jicaron as the most wildly beautiful stop in Pacific Panama."

Others have been drawn to Coiba's beauty, and the history of the island has not all been dark. A Smithsonian scientist, Alicia Ibañez, has been living and working on the island for several years, attended by a guard and assisted by an inmate, Mali Mali, who finished his sentence and stayed to continue work on the project. Today he is a government park ranger and the island´s most knowledgeable guide.

The prison closed for good with the evacuation of the last prisoners in July of 2004. No one knows for sure what crimes led them to Coiba, what in human life has been lost in the island´s past. In any case the inmates, collectively, have repaid a debt: their presence has kept this place almost completely immune from industrial degradation. Coiba and its archipelago were made a national park by decree in 1991, and last year the park status was made law.

Preserved as it is, Coiba´s value is immense - particularly because of the island´s marine life. Coiba is a key link in the Pacific island ring that includes Coco´s and the Galapagos, and, as the member of the group closest to the continent, a protected nursery for juvenile fish that will migrate as adults. Keeping Coiba´s marine ecosystem intact, therefore, is critical to maintaining tuna and billfish populations that are fished and consumed all over the world.

On a more local level, Coiba should continue to provide for coastal Panamanian communities. Small-scale fishing is an ancient activity in Panama; the word "Panama" actually means "abundance of fish" in an indigenous language, and while the moniker no longer applies to nearshore areas invaded by industrial fleets in the 70s and 80s, it still fits Coiba. Under the new park rules small-scale fishing will be allowed here under close regulation. All boats must apply for a permit at the ranger station. Legal gear is one line and three hooks - sufficient to fish for a family or small community but no more. The hope is that Coiba can continue to support local fishing while also providing a marine nursery ground that will help to replenish fish populations along the more heavily-fished coasts.

The transformation of Coiba from prison colony to national park is new and happening now. On Wednesday the first class of Coiba Ecological Police will graduate from their training course and take up a permanent presence on the island. They will collaborate with the park rangers and with MarViva to enforce the new fishing regulations, which went into effect this weekend. Yesterday, for the first time, the park rangers collected miles of longline from two of four boats that had requested permits to fish in the park; the other two decided to leave park territory rather than relinquish their illegal gear. Tonight a MarViva/park ranger/ecological police patrol will head out to circle the island. With the change of the Panamanian government in September there is a new administration in power and Coiba´s rangers are all new, so for this first run Rolando Ruiloba, director of Coiba National Park, will accompany them to supervise. Mar will be there to film and I to write. Needless to say, the Ranger could not have chosen a more important moment to arrive.

Golfito, briefly

Saturday, February 26th 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

We're back in Golfito for a few days to restock, shower, and get information about Cocos Island out to the wider world. Today we held a joint Oceana/MarViva press conference at the MarViva base. A bus brought the audience of journalists and cameramen from San Jose.

Xavier told the story of Cocos, which by now is familiar to some of us but no less impressive. It basically runs thus: Until very recently Cocos was a wilderness apart. It was a haven for pirates and the occasional whaler, but otherwise unvisited and unknown. In the 1970s, however, nearshore fisheries were rapidly depleted and fishing fleets began to frequent the island in force. Costa Rica declared Cocos and 12 miles of the surrounding ocean a national park (1978); UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site (1997), but the designations were meaningless in practice, industrial fishing continued on a large scale, and one of the planet´s most extraordinary marine treasures slipped into decline. It was only with the creation of MarViva and collaborative patrols, in 2002, that things began to change. And change they did.

As Xavier said, "The ongoing work around Cocos shows that professional partnership and loyal cooperation between governments, private companies, and NGOs gives results very quickly. In three years MarViva has done a number of important things here, and if we could copy and paste this approach in other parts of the world it would be one very good way to change the situation in the oceans."

There is, of course, still work to be done. Longliners linger at park borders, waiting for a chance to enter and willing to risk arrest - perhaps a further demonstration of continuing fisheries depletion closer to shore, perhaps testament to the success of the Cocos project in restoring the island's remarkable marine abundance, or perhaps some combination of both.

There were four organizations represented at the conference. Xavier Pastor, director of Oceana Europe; Micheal Rothchild, executive director of MarViva in Costa Rica; and Juan Pablo Camblor, director of Zoea, in Spain, all spoke. Mar Mas, founder and president of Kaisut Media and chief videographer of the Ranger expedition, had compiled a video of footage from Cocos, which we watched. It is easy when you are sailing, diving, filming to get lost in the details of the work, but here was its sum - four organizations pursuing a coordinated effort to assess the status of some of the most extraordinary areas of ocean in the world, and to convey to a broader public a vision of what the oceans are and can be. It was good to be in the audience, a thrill to see the pieces falling into place.

Open ocean and a sea turtle

Friday, February 25th 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

Back on the water again. Each morning I wake up at 6, forget I´m sleeping in a bunk and bang my head when I sit up. It was hard to leave Cocos but good to be moving, and there is much ahead.

Yesterday we passed a sea turtle. It is the first I´ve seen and from a distance we thought it was trash -- a dark object floating in a perfectly still, translucent sea. When we were closer we could see more clearly the turtle´s dome of a back, with a single ridge running down the center, which is a feature of the juveniles of some species. Our best guess was that it was a black turtle.

Black turtles (whose aliases include Pacific green turtle, tortuga negra and Chelonia mydas agassizi) nest on beaches the length of Costa Rica´s Pacific coast, as well as along the coasts of Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Colombia. Like almost all other sea turtle species, they are highly threatened. Egg-poaching is one cause; in these waters they are also caught as bycatch by commercial fishermen, particularly longliners of the sort the MarViva patrol boats work to control around Cocos. According to Pretoma, a Central American oceans NGO based in Costa Rica, dozens of black turtles have washed ashore on Costa Rican beaches in the last few years, dead, with injuries characteristic of contact with fishing gear. While bycatch of sea turtles is a serious problem all over the world -- sea turtles are migratory and travel long distances between feeding and nesting grounds -- the need for a solution is particularly acute around here because Costa Rica is one of the planet´s principal nesting sites. MarViva and other organizations are working to implement circle hooks, turtle excluder devices (TEDs) and other fishing practices less likely to injure turtles, as Oceana is in the U.S. and Europe, and the efforts are complementary; a changing international status quo is one of the most effective agents of change.

Today, Wednesday, there were dolphins. I wish I could say that I saw them but I was working below deck. The pictures, however, are amazing, and even listening to other crew recount the story was a point of excitement in the day.

Leaving Cocos, and trophic levels in action

Thursday, February 24th 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

We left Cocos. We sailed northeast with the island behind us, gorgeous, streaming water as if it had just lifted itself from the sea. The clouds pile above it.

On the way out we pass another longliner coming in. This is the second we've seen since we've been at the island. The first had pled engine trouble as an excuse for anchoring in the bay; it's a common story and there is no way to confirm it. Last night the MarViva patrollers pulled in a six-mile longline that had been set in park waters. Still, this is nothing. The park rangers and MarViva staff say that three years ago, before they began their collective patrols, there were thirty to forty fishing boats in park waters at any given time. I can well believe it. It is impressive to see firsthand the continuous enforcement efforts, patrols that stay out all night through darkness and storms, and the continuous pressure -- any gap in the patrolling and the longliners will enter again. The new level of protection around Cocos is both dramatic and tenuous.

But what a difference it makes. Today, before we left, the film crew did a final dive. Juan Pablo reports:

"The site was called 'Dirty Rock'" -- a much-favored target for birds -- "and it is a little rocky island without vegetation of any kind. Underwater, the walls of the rock are fairly vertical and drop 55-60 meters. The form or the rock is a kind of pyramidal pinnacle, very steep at the start but which slopes gently toward the bottom.

The incredible thing about this dive is that it was a perfect representation of the trophic chain, or the food web, of the marine ecosystem of Cocos Island. You have, at the bottom, at a depth of -50 meters, the big predators -- the apex of the pyramid. These are hammerhead sharks, known in the area as "horned" sharks. We saw two or three large ones, patrolling and circling the base of the rock. There was nothing else. The area was stark, just the two or three sharks, circling...

A little bit higher, in the -35-40 meter zone, there were tongues of sand in the rock, almost vertical. Here there was another type of shark -- whitetip reef sharks. They were resting. Hammerheads, and most sharks, must move constantly through the water, but whitetip reef sharks are an exception.

At 30 meters: the jacks. Also a large predator. There were small groups of them, and they were large -- 60 centimeters or so. At this point we also saw a pair of spotted tropical rays.

Closer to the surface the fish are smaller and there are a greater number. The number of species also increases. In the dark, cavernous fissures in the rock there were bigeyes -- soldierfish. Further out were butterflyfish, surgeonfish, parrotfish, and hundreds and hundreds of damselfish.

It was one of the most beautiful dives I have ever done. Both because the conditions were great and because it is so unusual to see this enormous variety of species outside of coral reefs. It's obvious that the work of MarViva, the government, and FAICO to protect the island have had an effect. All sharks -- from hammerheads to rays -- are captured in longline fishing. If there were no fishing regulations and no control over the fishing boats, there wouldn't be this quantity and diversity of species. The entire structure of the system alters when the top predators disappear.

There is a phenomenon that biologists call the "reserve effect," which consists of the fact that in areas where fishing is well regulated there is an increase in the number of species, in the number of individuals and in their size. Thanks to the work of MarViva, it's clear that this phenomenon exists in Cocos Island.

As regards Oceana's work, I am proud -- personally and professionally -- to be part of this team. In the discipline of enviromental protection and education it's not easy to find projects of this type and of this scale. It's a great opportunity, for a marine biologist, to collaborate in an initiative of this size -- on a 22-meter boat, twelve people working, each with his or her mission, in some of the best conserved and least accessible areas of the planet."

Day 3 at Cocos

Wednesday, February 23th 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

This afternoon the filming crew took a break and the other divers onboard the Ranger -- writers and support crew -- went out to Manuelita. I don'tt know where to start.

It was late in the afternoon when we left. The sky was dark and the surface of the water breaking in swells and whitecaps. Hussein, who is patient in three languages, talked us through gear set-up and got us into the dingy. Aitor, a diver himself but too generous to put on a mask before every other person has had a chance, drove us to Manuelita across the waves.

We got our BCs on; we pressed masks to faces. We sat on the side of the dingy and flipped backwards, fins up.

There is so much under the water! Too much to know where to look. The bottom was rocky, like a moonscape, cratered, scattered with boulders. Every few feet an otherworldly rock formation rose from the seafloor. There were fish everywhere. Schools of soldierfish (red fish with big black eyes), deep purple surgeonfish edged with gold, trumpetfish -- some bright yellow, others translucent with a scattering of neon blue spots at one end -- hanging in the water. It's impossible to tell which end of a trumpetfish is the front, an effective deterrent for predators and admirers alike, and more than once I found myself seeking eye contact with an indifferent rear. There were lobsters in crevices, anemones among the rocks, pufferfish (some yellow, some black/white and spotted), large elegant angelfish, butteflyfish... so very many fish. An occasional parrotfish would dart by, looking paranoid; with its heavy head the parrotfish doesn't seem to me made for rapid movement. And then there were groupers, larger fish that didn't move rapidly at all, didn't move at our approach, big fish mottled blue/green or brown/gray. They stared back, turned a superior and cynical eye.

And then there were the sharks. Those I saw were whitetips; some of the other divers saw silkys and blacktips as well. When we first dropped to the seafloor they were occasional. Every minute or so a smooth gray body would glide into our field of vision, just below or just next to us. They kept close to the bottom, slipping around the sculpted rocks, silvery and sinewy, nothing superfluous in their muscled form. These were small sharks, maybe four feet on average. They move with quick, purposeful twists of the body, like the practiced flick of a whip. Swish swish. And then they glide. Swish swish. Glide. I reminded myself to breathe evenly and remembered what I know: that sharks attack humans very, very rarely and almost always in self-defence. That the great majority of attacks are perpetrated by bigger, brasher species like the tiger shark, bull shark, great white. That, contrary to the cultural mythology that I have apparently, unknowingly, absorbed, sharks are intelligent and cautious creatures at a far greater risk from mankind than they are a menace to us.

The protection afforded to sharks at Cocos Island, in fact, is one of the park's most salient points. Nearly everywhere else in this region sharks are hunted for their fins. Shark finning laws are lax, selectively enforced or non-existent. Within Central America, Costa Rica has some of the more stringent regulations: under a brand new fishing law, finning is technically illegal, and all boats are required to offload their catch at public docks. Notwithstanding, the government lacks the personnel and resources to enforce the law, and Punta Arenas is studded with private docks where fins are transferred from Costa Rican longliners to the bigger export ships that will carry them across the Pacific to Asia. "Yes, there is a law," says Samuel Morales, a member of the MarViva crew, "but if you have the money to build your own dock, you do it." Other countries in this area, like El Salvador, have no shark finning laws at all, and there are rumors that with rising attention to the problem in Costa Rica the larger finning fleets are moving there. In any case Cocos Island is a much-needed refuge for sharks in a hostile sea. Remembering all that, I drew more calmly from my tank and took the time to enjoy my proximity to such incredible and vulnerable animals.

At the end of the dive we ascended to a depth of 15 feet to make a decompression stop. We looked down. The ocean floor was alive with sharks. There were more. They were larger. They twisted and swung their bodies, going everwhere and nowhere. We hung in the water, incredulous, looking down, rising and falling with our breathing and with the swells. The sharks could not have cared less.

Day 2 at Cocos

Thursday, February 22th 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

More filming today. At nine in the morning we are on a MarViva boat, speeding out of the bay and around to the other side of the island. This boat is smaller and more mobile than the Ranger, larger and more stable than our little dingies, and MarViva has offered to transport the diving team from one site to another.

Miguel (a MarViva captain) steers, Mar watches the water. Every once in a while fins appear momentarily, or something jumps and lands with a splash. For a few minutes we have dolphins at the bow. The marine life at Cocos, even on the surface, is extraordinary -- but in this place it is the norm. The island itself is verdant and wet, quite literally dripping with water; it falls in threads down the island's steep green sides. Some of the waterfalls disappear into the forest. Others have carved long channels from the top of the island down to the sea. Cocos gets 280 inches of rain a year. There is so much water here that the park rangers who work on the island (they rotate month-long shifts) have constructed a hydroelectric dam to power their base.

Today the sky is gray, the ocean active. At the dive site -- again, an islet -- frigate birds and enormous gulls wheel above the pyramid of rock. The diving team (Mar, Hussein, Aitor, Juan Pablo, and Soledad) prepare their gear and load the dingy. We loose the rope and they are gone. Against the waves the dingy looks small and sad, smaller as it recedes away from us and toward the rock, but after an hour or so it returns and the divers climb back on board. The ocean life is amazing, they say, but the water turbid. A strong current today makes filming hard.

We do this all day from site to site. It is amazing to be on the water, hear the stories of the MarViva crew, see the ocean even from the surface. The real story, though, is underneath, and all of us are anxious to see what the filming will produce.

Day 1 at Cocos Island

Monday, February 21th 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

Cocos Island: A series of islands, really, one massive and countless miniature peaks that rise from the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The main island is cloaked in forest. The smaller islets, of which there are many, all around the island, are little pyramids of jagged rock. Most have at least one hollowed-out cavern at the water line; when the sun hits them right they look like thatched huts with doors.

The islands are the center of a protected area that includes 24 square kilometers of land and 972 of water. The difficulty of access to the island kept it immune from human influence until the end of the twentieth century, when fishing boats, driven farther from shore by depleted fisheries, began to encroach. Cocos, however, has been lucky. The incredible number and diversity of species in and around the island have brought it international renown, and -- declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1997, patrolled by MarViva and government park rangers since 2002 -- it has retained its character of wilderness.

Our task here is to document Cocos' marine life, both to present as a vision of what the oceans can be and to support continued efforts to protect the park. The videography team hasn't lost any time. Today they went diving by an islet called Manuelita at the edge of our bay. We sent them off in a dingy full of tanks, fins, gear, and a few hours later they were back on board, talking over each other, talking so fast that despite the rewind function on my tape recorder I've had to ask one of the native speakers to help me transcribe Mar's very excited report. Here's what she said:

: © OCEANA

The island -- Manuelita island, at the face where we went diving, has a ton of rocks, descending from the island, and they continue down from six meters to twenty making a very soft descent because at twenty, twenty-five meters is a sandy bottom, and you see spreading all the rocks of different sizes. There were rocks that were eight, nine meters tall, and full of every species -- absolutely everything, everything. All of the rocks are completely enveloped in algae and small invertebrates. We saw a little bit of coral -- here and there -- and more than anything there were mackerel -- the thing is that there was everything! There were sharks, sharks... reef sharks, little whitetips, five, six, eight, twelve, nineteen... And then, on the way back, when we were descending by the wall, enormous like this (gestures) -- it was breathtaking, full of tiny life forms, incredible, everything was gorgeous. We ran into two huge jacks chasing an eel, and then something like five sharks appeared. Whitetip. Amazing. Amazing.

Arrival at Cocos Island

Sunday, February 20th 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

We're here! We are at Cocos. We first saw the island, a gray splotch on the horizon, yesterday morning, and by the afternoon we could see its rocky crags, the lush green hills, and two MarViva boats anchored in the bay. Everyone was excited. We had Juan Pablo (director of VOEA and one of Ranger's divemasters) high up on the masts to film, swinging in the rigging like a spider monkey. Our two temporary guests (Marcela, director of communications for MarViva, and Alex, from FAICO) work every day to protect the island but had never seen it, so for everyone on board -- divers, biologists, Costa Ricans, Europeans, and Americans -- this was the opportunity of a lifetime.

At the twelve-mile border of the marine park we passed a long-line boat, just sitting there. There was a crew of five or six, a tangle of green and black flags rising from the boat (they are used to mark the long-line buoys), and "Punta Arenas" -- the boat's home port -- painted on the stern. Marcela says that the boats always wait on the border for a moment to enter, or use their knowledge of currents to let their lines drift into park territory even while the boat is legally outside.

It's obvious enough why they would. No sooner had we entered park waters than two dolphins joined us at the bow. Marcela said, "This is how you know you're getting to Cocos."

We anchored in the bay. In just a few days at sea you learn to dispense with petty luxuries -- like showers. Since we left Golfito, none of us have taken personal hygiene to a much greater extent than an occasional splash of fresh water over the face, and, once safely anchored, we tumbled off the Ranger's stern into the blue, blue water. A few of the professional divers on board -- Nuno, our fearless captain; Juan Pablo; Aitor; and Hussein -- went diving on the anchor in masks and fins, disappearing into the depths for longer than I would have thought possible, incredibly graceful and looking very much at home.

Morning watch

Friday, February 18th 2005 - Sandy Mayson -

We left Golfito last night around 7 and have been traveling southwest toward C