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DISPATCH 8: "A Dive and a Dropoff" - 6.07.2006 | Mark Schrope 
Today, as is our custom when there are people and expensive equipment to be transferred by
small boat on the open ocean, we arranged for the seas to kick up after many days of calm...
After towing the mocness this morning and once processing of the samples collected had begun, the R/V Seward Johnson. headed in toward Ft. Lauderdale. Co-chief scientist John Reed had to leave the ship to attend the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council meeting, where he is presenting new data about these and other deep reefs in the region. At the dock we also picked up Jeff Burnside, a reporter with NBC 6 in Miami and brought him back to the ship. The seas were only about two to three feet at this point, not much by ocean standards, but combined with the wind it made for a little bit of a bumpy ride back out. 
After steaming back to the reef sites, we launched the sub on time at 12:30 with Tracey Sutton in the sphere, and Burnside taking his first submersible dive in the aft chamber. On this and several other dives this trip the pilots had to battle nasty bottom currents. Today it was about 1.5 miles per hour in places, which may not sound like much, but with a submersible that only goes a little over 1 mile per hour, it can get tricky. It also means burning extra battery power to fight the current, which ends up shortening a dive. With Sutton in the front, the focus was once again on fish. A large wreckfish was waiting almost as soon as the sub hit bottom, but the best large fish encounter came later. "What I thought was cool was when a barrelfish came barreling into the sub," says Sutton. The hefty 2.5-foot fish hit the sphere and was a little stunned by the impact and the sub's lights and, perhaps to a lesser degree, by Sutton waving hello. The entire incident was captured on video for everyone to enjoy once the sub made it back to the surface. 
During the dive Sutton also identified several not-yet-logged fish species, bringing the total to somewhere around 40 species spotted during this expedition. On this dive alone he saw some 75 fish or so from 8 species. One particularly memorable fish on this dive he has not yet had time to identify, but it was a beautiful, small fish with alternating tomato red and white bands that looked like something out of a tropical aquarium. Another objective for the dive, other than simply showing NBC's Burnside around the reef, was an interview at about 1,000 feet. With the sub's camera turned around to face the sphere, Sutton answered a questions about the Miami Terrace, and broader issues of deep habitat protection, including ongoing debates at the global level to ban bottom trawling in international waters, a practice that has had devastating effects on numerous areas. Given the discussion, it was interesting that the dive team saw more fishing gear on the reef explored today than during any other dive yet. Pilot Tim Askew first spotted the long stretch of tangled line wrapped around the rocks because such gear can pose threats to the sub, though it didn't in this case. Sutton thought the line was likely lost long-lining equipment, rather than anything related to bottom trawling. 
Back on the surface after the sub dive, Burnside finished his interviews and then waited for the ride that would take him the more than 10 miles back to shore. The good folks at South Florida Diving Headquarters (www.southfloridadiving.com) had agreed to pick him up in a 25-foot center console boat that took on more than a little water battling the now 2 to 4 foot seas and high winds on their way out to the ship's location. Those seas ultimately caused us to cancel the day's second dive. Though not especially large, their direction countered the currently ripping 4 M.P.H. Gulf Stream in such a way that recovery of the submersible would have been dangerous. To make up for the loss, the plan is to do three shorter dives on Thursday, our final day of operations. 
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