As has now become routine, everyone’s on deck for 0700, and we manage record time for deploying the DropCam. It’s over the stern and into the water by 0730, heading for the deep.
Maybe our expectations have been set too high after what we saw at Lord Howe Rise, but it’s a really hard dive today. Technical issues mean we have to connect our man in London to the deep sea of the Tasman once more. He provides a fix but the feed is still slower than usual and it’s painful.
We survey for four hours, but we’re just seeing screen after screen of destruction. Everyone suddenly feels exhausted by it, it’s obviously not what we want to see as our lead scientist Kat sums it up.
There’s no rest for the wicked as we decide to put the ROV down as soon as the DropCam is retrieved on board. The ROV doesn’t have much more success, and we then go straight into the afternoon DropCam dive.
Again, we find a lot of destruction. By 5pm everyone’s frustrated and exhausted, and there’s an enforced exercise/sit on the bow and stare at the sea break before we plan the next day’s operations.
It’s probably the most depressing day we’ve had on board, but we have everything crossed for tomorrow.
A lunar eclipse brings some evening entertainment on the back deck, and our captain turns the lights down so we can catch some stars over a tranquil Tasman.
Call on the Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters to create new global ocean sanctuaries and protect our blue planet.
Sign the petition
