Thursday 23rd October, on board the Airaha 2.

The ship leaves at 7 am taking the divers to the entrance to Triton Bay. On our way there, we have to prepare the diving equipment and finish sorting out the samples collected the day before. Each specimen must be photographed and prepared to be properly preserved. A fragment is placed in alcohol for future genetic analyses.

Today we dived twice. One, in the morning, was an open-circuit diving about twenty metres deep, the other, in the afternoon, was a closed-circuit diving in deeper waters. Each of us brought back specimens depending on their specialties (sea corals, algae, molluscs, echinoderms…)

Indra caught a sea cucumber – Copyright : S. Quérouil / IRD

(translated by Evelyne Viloteau, L2 SVC–Life & Earth Sciences–UM2, France)