We’ve arrived at our first sampling station: the Schmidt-Ott seamount. The weather isn’t really helping us with a 10 metre swell which keeps us from being able to use our sampling equipment. However, we can start mapping the seamount and hope for better conditions in the morning.

Åge Høines has defined the transects that the vessel will have to follow in order to have a clear picture of the seamount’s morphology.

At 2AM we have our first map (see Map 2 below) showing a prevalence of hard substrata and steep slopes close to the top of the seamount at 1 095 m depth.

Luckily the weather has improved and we will try using the campod. You can see it here above when we brought it onboard. After 20 minutes we have our first footage of the Schmidt-Ott seamount habitat and fauna.

Here in the photo, the scientists are gathered around a large screen placed in one of the labs to watch the recording. We can see a rock solid habitat covered by coral debris where the seafloor is less steep, and it’s scattered with gorgonians, hydrocorals, sponges and echinoderms.

We observed dories oreos (Allocyttus verrucosus), grenadiers and rattails, and a few lantern sharks (Etmopterus sp.) among the fish fauna recorded.