This area is sort of referred to as the Graveyard of the Atlantic because of the high degree of shipwrecks that have occurred in this region.
We started out with great suspense, thinking that we were heading toward a target that had been identified from the sonar.
So we hoped that it was the hull of a vessel.
We approached it slowly and encountered a fairly steep wall of broken rock slabs and we did not find any evidence of a shipwreck.
The good news is that it's great habitat.
Wow, look at all the [...]. I've never seen this many in one place before.
Lots of overhanging ledges that they can hide under. Nooks and crannies.
We started out this dive with archaeologists on the line and in the chatroom.
I sent out an email once we were pretty sure it was not a wreck, and now we have about 30 biologists joining us.
That's Lophelia. Well, it's a coral dive after all.
This is an important set of data to add to what we know about where corals and fishes and sensitive habitats are.
The name of exploration, sometimes you have a shipwreck, sometimes you have a pile of rocks.
It is great to see it at depth. Once and awhile, you see these at the surface and it's very exciting, but this is even better.
Oh, aren't we lucky?
Wow.