HECATAEUS MISSION 1 NIREAS MARINE RESEARCH completed its first mission successful.
The vessel departed at 0600hrs from Limasol, Cyprus with a southeastern course to about 20nm offshore. Sea conditions were calm with a NE wind of 2 Bft. Underwater visibility was 25 meters. On board was a multinational crew from Cyprus, UK, Japan and Austria including oceanography students from the University of Cyprus, commercial divers, ROV pilots, film teams plus ships crew. During the precheck phase of one rebreather for the dive operations a fault was detetected making the unit unsafe to dive. However a Plan B was ready and the diver switched to open circuit to complete his job with a maximum depth to 57 meters. The first task included the launch of one seaglider to collect data that are related to the characteristics of the water column such as temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll concentration, sea currents and others. The seaglider is controlled via sattelite by Dr. Daniel Hayes from the Oceanographic Centre in Nicosia. Dr. Hayes coordinates the YPOKINOUMODA research program. After calibration and setup the glider descended into the blue to collect its data. The second task was the deployment of a CTD to measure conductivity (a measure of the salinity of ocean water), temperature, and depth. Task three was the trawling of a filter net to collect small animals known collectively as zooplankton. These include daphnia, copepods, and other small organisms. During the trawl of the net the towing line broke and the filter device started to sink. Rapid diver respond by a standby boat caught the sinking end of the line before the unit would dissappear to the bottom of the ocean. The trawl was then successfully completed. A good number of specimen were collected and the samples were stored for later study at the Oceanographic Center. All operations of the scientific instruments were filmed and photographed underwater in HD by divers and a ROV.