I arrived for my watch shift to find a Blake trawl in the process of being dragged along the bottom of the seafloor.
This is the Blake trawl lying on the back deck before being connected to the A-frame wire.
I was told that just minutes before the wire tension had spiked to over 18,000 and everyone feared that another trawl had broken off the wire. Finally, all the wire was pulled back on the boat, and the Blake trawl was not on the end. The second and last Blake trawl had been pulled off and left on the seafloor. The mood and confidence on the boat took a decline.
Look at the end of the wire; the trawl broke off there.
We still had other equipment to use, 1 otter trawl and 2 basket dredges. These final pieces of equipment are not usually as effective as a Blake trawl for collecting corals along the seafloor, but they are better than nothing. The corals group had to reassess and organize a new plan of attack. They wanted to put the Towcam, a very advanced marine camera, onto the seafloor to get pictures in order to decide the best plan. The winds and seas were too high to safely deploy the Towcam, so that was postponed. It was then decided to try a basket dredge to collect corals. My watch shift ended when the box dredge was on its way back into the ship. I am hopefully that it will bring up good results!